A Muzi said:I also disagree there's any conspiracy to dissuade from trains. People
generally like cars. Worldwide, generally and in all cultures. Even at
$3 gas (_much_ more outside US) most drive if they are able. We cyclists
are not at all typical of humans.
This is absolutely true. A case in point is LA's streetcar system,
supposedly dismantled by a cabal of GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil, in a
plot to sell more cars and gasoline. The real story is that these
companies kept the streetcars running through more than a decade of
near-zero ridership. The final blow was not from big auto and big oil,
but a citizens movement to get the streetcars out of the way because they
were blocking traffic. People wanted to be able to drive their own cars,
unimpeded.
They still do, which is why they still move to suburban environments that
at least give the impression of unimpeded personal motor vehicle travel.
A billion Chinese want this too.
Quoted message said:Once other non-automobile alternates become 'public', the customer is
treated like the enemy, service disappears and anyone who doesn't have
to use it won't. Sorta like health care where there is no market for
most services. Everyone hates it. (contrast an ER with a Lasik outlet!)
Name a 'public' system that isn't user-antagonistic.
London, Paris, Sydney, Vancouver... etc. I hear Germany and Scandanavia
are even better.
I spent my teenage years in Sydney, and made good use of public transit
there. It was awesome, being able to get almost anywhere I needed to go
without being chauffered, like American kids have to be. I rode my bike a
lot but almost no one else did, probably because they didn't have to.
Quoted message said:There's no
motivation to treat customers as customers when you have the
legislature ready and willing to lay the scourge of taxation on the
non-using populace to pay for the thing. In a normal business the
customer provides the revenue. In transit, the legislators are the
'customers' and the riders are 'freight'. Staff 'gets it' and behaves
accordingly.
I disagree. I've enjoyed using transit systems in many different cities.
The good ones are wonderfully user-friendly.
A lot of American bus systems are hard to use because there are ads
instead of maps on the walls of the bus stop shelters. You can't just
walk up to a bus stop and figure out how to get to where you're going.
As far as surly staff go, that's a product of management. Unfortunately,
unions can be pretty good at protecting bad workers too. Fear of losing
one's job can be good motivation to be cheerful and helpful. It may not
be the most best management technique, but it works for chain restaurants
and Wal-Mart.
Matt O.
