Interesting article on TheStar.com (Toronto Canada based) regarding the relative cost of gasoline and it’s impact on automotive development and environmental standards. This article parallels what I have stated previously about Why Things Don’t Change. Basically, Cash Rules Everything Around Me. In order to increase environmental and fuel mileage regulations, the cost of gas must go up… exponentially!
Tag: Politics
Planes, Trains and Automobiles
Posted by – April 10, 2007
On my way to LAX today, my thoughts regarding the lack of viable public transportation in Southern California (SoCal) were further solidified. I would like to make a plea with each and every person that happens across this humble entry to plead with your elected representatives to change this. We need a sustainable, useful, usable, convenient, cost-effective, comprehensive public transportation system in SoCal.
If you have spent any time on the various freeways in SoCal, you will have noticed that we have greatly exceeded their capacity. The freeways and Interstates are congested at all hours of the day, and night. During peak hours, they are utterly useless. The freeways have become the primary conduit for, not only people, but freight traveling to and from the numerous, sprawling metropli that are slowly expanding into each other. Soon, there will be no discernable break in the artificial landscape we have constructed. It will be one giant, man made, concrete and asphalt blight covering all of Southern California.
There are currently plans underway to spend enormous amounts of money adding more freeway. I would argue that there is a fundamental flaw with this strategy. There is a law in nature that nature will fill in any void, that, given enough time, all available resources will be consumed. This behaviour is especially true of mankind. We have an uncanny ability to quickly expand our use of resources to consume all that is made available, and then some. By adding more freeway to what exists, we will only be encouraging ourselves to use the freeways more. By adding lanes, we will only alleviate congestion temporarily. Eventually, as is our habit, we will fill up any additions to the point that they too are rendered useless.
The only solution that I can see, is to eschew the practice of encouraging the use of automobiles and large trucks to transport or ourselves and our freight for a more efficient system of public transportation. Specifically I would like to see a massive expansion of commuter rail, and not just within the limits of any particular city. I would like to see a comprehensive, all encompassing system of light rail, freight, and high speed rail constructed.
To illustrate my point, let’s use this morning’s trip from Rancho Cucamonga to LAX [map]. I woke up (way too early), got dressed and hopped into my car (a nice, eco-friendly Honda Civic). Once we managed to make it to a freeway, we hurried along for a bit until we reached the 210/57 interchange. This is where we ran into our first bottleneck. Luckily, we exited the freeway not too far from this to meet up with the rest of our party and travel along in an airport shuttle. The shuttle driver, being the savvy daily driving person that he is, was able to get us to LAX in near record time and we managed to breeze along at a decent speed, expect for those areas where lanes ended, or merged with other lanes.
While this trip doesn’t seem to illustrate my point of needing a robust public transportation system, consider what I think would be a better alternative. Wake up considerably later, take a bus to the local light rail station, wait a few minutes for the train to arrive. Once aboard, we get to relax as we are shuttled to our first destination, the high-speed rail terminal. After debarking our light rail commuter train, we then board a high-speed, express train that runs straight to LAX, with no stops! We sit in relative comfort as we speed along at 200 MPH towards the airport sipping lattes and enjoying each other’s company in a stress free environment. What took an hour and a half on the freeways should take no more than an hour, including waiting for trains. Instead of sitting in exhaust fume laden traffic, we get to move through the cities with ease. Instead of contributing to conjestion, pollution and the overall stress and frustration of the motoring public, we are able to travel the nearly 65 miles without consuming one drop of oil (assuming the use of an alternative fuel bus, electric trains and power plants that do not use oil products).
This seems like such a better solution that it is a no-brainer. If I worked in Los Angeles, I would be stomping my feet and pumping my fists in anger that this system does not exist. It is insane that we continue to force a square peg into a round hole. Eventually, we are going to have to remove ourselves from the 1950′s. Single family homes, suburban sprawl and a never ending flow of commuter traffic are the ingredients for the disaster that we are living in.
Maybe I should move to France where they have had the TGV for over two decades?
California’s Transportation Woes
Posted by – March 21, 2007
Back in November of 2006, California voters approved Proposition 1B1, that will provide nearly $20,000,000,000.00 for improvements to our ailing transportation systems. In case that is too may zeros for you, it translates to twenty billion (with a “b” billion) dollars. To put that sort of money into perspective, consider that it is greater that the GDP of all but 79 of world’s nations2. In other words, it is a lot of money.
Now that the money has been approved, it is time for the hyenas (politicians) to try and gather as much of it for themselves as possible. Locally, there will be 11 billion dollars earmarked for a car pool lane on the 405 Interstate freeway that runs through Los Angeles. My problem with all of this is that before we spend 11 billion dollars on a carpool lane, perhaps we should figure out if car pool lanes work or not. I personally do not think that they work, at all. Adding more lanes to a freeway does not necessarily alleviate congestion. The only way we can get rid of congestion, is to reduce the number of cars on the road. Increasing the amount of road, only serves to increase the number of cars on the road. What we need are alternatives. Instead of constructing a carpool lane, I would like to see a rail based mass transit system put into place. Especially on the 405, which runs right next to LAX. Currently there is no commuter rail going to LAX, that is preposterous!
References:
The power of multimedia
Posted by – December 20, 2006
via: digg
The site http://www.obleek.com/iraq/, apart from being completely depressing, shows the power of multimedia representations of data over raw numbers. I have heard figures about the number of fatalities in the war, but I think raw numbers lack in impact. When watching the animation from the above site, it seems to put the severity and scope of the fatalities in an entirely new perspective.
Disturbing Radio Ad
Posted by – October 31, 2006
I was driving to work yesterday morning, listening to KROQ as usual, when I hear an altogether amusing and disturbing ad on the radio that went something like:
Make a world of difference in your career with the National Clandestine Service at the Central Intelligence Agency
This blatant government propaganda frightens me. Are things so bad that the CIA needs to start recruiting over the airwaves? I know that, according to the application of Godwin’s Law, I lose my argument with this next statement, but doesn’t this sounds Nazi-ish? Actually, this little ad reminded me of the movie Starship Troopers. This movie was full of gung-ho, pro government, fight the bad guys, rhetoric. Of course, in the movie it was done for it’s comedic value, but this is real!
Chrysler just doesn’t get it!
Posted by – September 14, 2006
The subject as evidenced by the new 2007 Dodge Ram SRT10 and it’s slightly less than stellar fuel mileage rating of… 7 miles per gallon. Are they f-ing serious? Someone needs to point out that our dependence on foreign oil is the root cause for the deaths of thousands of American citizens and citizen soldiers. Radical islamic jihadists are funded with the proceeds of our gluttunous need for oil. In producing this truck, Dodge is saying that it doesn’t value these lives, that it doesn’t care about 9/11 and that it hopes the American people and the rest of the civilized West will remain sucking at the teat of the Middle East.
I know that they are just producing a product that a certain segment of the population wants, but when you are as big a corporation as Chrysler, perhaps you should show a little restraint in your quest for profits and actual make some decisions that will benefit all of us. Chrysler is bound by the same social contract that keeps us all a few inches from utter anarchy. As a gigantic nationwide corporation, their charge should be to provide the American public with a quality product that we want, but on the same note it shouldn’t be a product that will harm us in the long run.
A quote from the originating article sums up how I feel, and is a pretty damned funny too!
This truck could be more politically incorrect only if it ran on whale oil and panda tears.
Roads
Posted by – July 6, 2006
I have been staving off an attack of soap box diatribes for a while now, but no more! This entry will be entirely pointless and even more useless, but I feel a need to vent. So here goes:
What is up with the roads? I live in the Inland Empire region of Southern California and I think that we probably have the worst roads of any major third world country. I am sure that my recent anger towards the pavement stems from sudden increase in driving brought on by a new relationship that sees me rolling along some 200 miles a week. No matter the reason for the sudden upswell in anger, the true culprit is the absolute lack of quality in our roads.
Take for instance Ramona Expressway, this road was recently changed from a 2 lane death trap to a 4 lane divided highway for about 4 miles fronting a new development. While this sounds good in theory, the actual result is terrible. The original two-way road surface was used for the west-bound lanes. This was absolutely moronic! You cannot reverse the direction of traffic flow on a road without seeing an enormous increase in cracking, checking and monstrous potholes. The pavement stretches with the flow of traffic (not much, but millimeters add up eventually), when the flow is reversed, the pavement is pushed back to where it started, but it literally begins to tear apart. Why in the world would an engineer ever allow this to happen? Why? Well, after the road began to literally fall apart, the city of Perris had to pay to have it fixed, so the tore up the lane that was messed up and re-paved it. This has got to be the absolute worst paving job I have ever seen. The pavement isn’t even close to being smooth. There are so many bumps that I think the potholes may have been better! I would like to know the name of the inspector that signed that shoddy workmanship off. I don’t know what I would do with the name, but I would like to know it at least. Perhaps I could curse him every time I drove down that road.
Don’t even get me started on the freeways in SoCal, I don’t understand how the worlds largest and most complex freeway system (I am assuming) can be so poorly constructed. Perhaps it is the age of the road surface that is to blame, but I don’t care. California residents pay more in taxes on their gasoline than any other state (I am basing that on the sheer population of the state), that being said, we should have the nicest roads! Period. I have driven through states that can’t possibly match the dollar per highway mile that California residents pay, but their roads are immaculate. We Calfornian’s need to rally together and demand that we get our fair share of the Federal government’s monetary appropriation for highways each year.
Ok, so I think will do for now… Stay tuned for more exciting complaining from me in the near future!
Making fun of Republicans
Posted by – July 6, 2006
Preface: I am not a Democrat, but this shit is funny!
Also, I noticed one of the advertisements served up by Google was for an online dating service catering to Republicans, entitled what else but: REPUBLICANPeopleMeet.com. This seems like it may be against the Republicans charter, aren’t they supposed to meet people at church?
For good karma I will have to post some funny stuff about the Democr… wait, is there a Democratic Party? Oh yeah, I forgot they changed their name to “The Anti-Republican League of Concerned But Not Affected Rich People”.
My solution to the gas crisis
Posted by – July 6, 2006
We need to build nuclear reactors like they are going out of style! Pebble Bed Nuclear Reactors are theoretically fail safe, small, and can be located anywhere. I would place one of these reactors in every town across America! We are so far behind the technology curve when it comes to nuclear reactors that we are positioned perfectly to start a massive build up using this technology.
Of course this doesn’t preclude the use of other technologies as well. For instance, I think that it should be mandatory for all new buildings to incorporate solar collectors into their roofs and, escpecially in the south-west, a serious review of building practices to create more thermally effecient homes.
There are negative enviromental impacts of electricity generation regardless of the technology used to produce it. I think that utilizing nuclear reactors affords the least impact of any current technology. Now before you start thinking, “What about electric cars? or hybrids? or fuel-cells?”, think about where the power for that electric car, hybrid or fuel cell powered vehicle comes from. The answer is, more than likely, fossil fuels, specifically petroleum based products.
Vote!
Posted by – June 7, 2006
Well, of course it is too late for this to do any good, but we voted today in California. There were a number of local offices up for grab in my district and, of course, the ubiquitous referenda (see previous post for my feelings about referenda). As much of a cynic as I am, I do think that voting is important. Of course, informed voting is what I am talking about, not drunk voting.
