it's nice to see someone interested in urban planning (a subject near & dear to me, having been part of a team that put together a comprehensive plan for the city of lake dallas several years ago) publicly acknowledge that highways are not a good idea; that public transportation is a more realistic alternative. if more lawmakers acknowledged that, perhaps my ass wouldn't be over here in iraq.
--
SPC Chris McCullough
B Co 1/77 AR BN
FOB Paliwoda, Balad, Iraq

By chris, at 12/10/2004 1:58 AM  

My friend replied to me regarding Aaron's site:

"he's really into trains."

To which I replied:

Americans are really into cars.

Every force needs an equal and opposite one. And we need trains (and Aarons' blog!).

By Jason Solarek, at 12/10/2004 11:09 AM  

Trains are a rough gamle here in the land of the big stinking car.

Since most of American's travel these days is from one sprawling low-density shithole to an identical one hundreds of miles away, trains make little sense, since development these days follows no organized pattern anymore.

plus we have to take into account that Amerika has barely invested in high-speed rail travel. Most of Amtrak's trains are more expensive than some express flights, yet are almost as time consuming a trip as going greyhound.

Train travel will not be cost effective in Amerkia until we enact urban growth boundaries around all out major metroplexes and begin to reorient settlement patterns from sprawling burbs into much more dense, compact living arrangements. This will not happen until there is a major paradigm shift from the anti-urban mentality of most working and middle class Americans to a realization that the only way to survive planet earth in the future is to live in a manner that promotes energy conservation and low enviornmental impact.

A steady spike in oil prices may be the only catalyst for such a thing to occur-- as most Americans and utterly blind and ignorant about how their personal energy consumption habits are fucking up the planet.

By gabe, at 12/10/2004 1:25 PM  

To SPC McCullough: Thank you for your service to our country. I used to be a radio operator with the Navy/Marine Corps Military Affiliate Radio System, so it's nice to see that servicemen/women are able to communicate so easily these days with those of us who are stateside. Good luck to you and thanks for noticing my blog.

To my friend Jason: Thanks for the props, man! I appreciate it.

To Gabe: I'm all for urban growth boundaries. It's a great idea. Hopefully we can do our parts, however small they may be, to try to bring about that paradigm shift.

By AD, at 12/11/2004 10:10 AM