Comments on: lessons learned from the third world? http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/ Getting around the Bay Area with Denis Cuff and the Queen of the Road Tue, 17 May 2011 06:04:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Reedman http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-399 Reedman Tue, 16 Jan 2007 19:51:14 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-399 [ Reference: A 400-page report by the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation, entitled Livestock's Long Shadow, November,2006] The world’s 1.5 billion cattle are responsible for 18 per cent of the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, more than cars, planes and all other forms of transport put together.

http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=20772&Cr=global&Cr1=environment

P.S. Don’t tell Al Gore …

]]> By: Michael F. Sarabia http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-398 Michael F. Sarabia Mon, 11 Dec 2006 21:17:01 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-398 Would it were so simple. “Build railways and they will come” so, why did they tear them up?
Trains are best at moving masses of people from A to B. Look at the light rail in San Diego, it looks like your train in India. It brings masses of workers in and out daily to and from Tijuana.
Look at High Speed trains in Europe and Japan, daily they move masses between high-density cities and leave the land for farming, forests, etc. But, THEY plan ahead and do not use developers to use the cheapest form of housing construction: Low Density Housing.
Instead of an intelligent plan, look at what we will do in East Contra Costa County.
BART was supposed to go to Brentwood or Byron, depending on who you ask.
“They” said BART is too expensive and stopped at Bay Point. The extension to Byron, “they” said, would cost $1.2 Billion. “TOO MUCH’ they said. “eBART” will cost $500 Million.
NOW, they say eBART will cost $1.3 Billion! Get the picture!
Let me say it anyway, they said “BART is too expensive at $1.2 Billion” and now theysay “eBART is not too expensive at $1.3 Billion”.
“They”, our irresponsible leaders, are willing to borrow Billions and let taxpayers pay whatever they think they “can get away with”, as the phrase goes. They will have “moved on” when the bill comes due.

Add to that a fare of $8 Dollars, that goes up every two years, and a COUNTY subsidy of another $8 Dollars and… surely you can now see the picture, right?
Leaders in other countries do not have the money to waste so they are frugal, and efficient.
Our leaders know voters must be kept content in the present and “ignore” the future. See?

Do you think the average rail worker in China, Japan or Europe makes over $100,000 a year?
BART workers do.
Do you think any nation would be smart enough to build a train system, designed to be operated by computers, and then require each train to have a crew, with an Operator, anyway?
What do you think our selfless train workers do at strike time, to get more money?
Worst: BART Management agreed to stop training Managers to operate trains in case of a strike.

What if they ask for a pay increase of 40%?
Let’s not wonder what other countries would do.
By now, you know the answer, or we are both wasting time.

]]> By: Don in Houston http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-395 Don in Houston Mon, 11 Dec 2006 15:57:05 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-395 I totally agree with “South Bay Resident” in in views on China.

`Vehicle sales already at 4.69 million units by October-end should close 2005 at 5.8 million units, making China the world’s second biggest automobile market.’

New Delhi , Dec. 8

“THE Chinese market, for some time now the growth engine of the global automobile industry, is poised to enter that critical phase identified with sustained long-term growth in the traditional development cycle of automobile markets, a senior economist from that country’s State Information Centre has said.

His comments came against the backdrop of the recent slowdown in Chinese automobile sales after a period of intense growth in 2002 and 2003.

From 1.45 million vehicles sold in 1996, the market size zoomed to 5.20 million units in 2004.”

http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2005/12/09/stories/2005120902430500.htm

Individual and independant movement is what most people really cherish and desire. What needs to be discussed are more plans for energy efficient PRT vehicles, also known as automobiles.

]]> By: South Bay Resident http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-394 South Bay Resident Fri, 08 Dec 2006 16:04:55 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-394 Ron Diridon’s quote about China choosing not to add to the problem of Global warming is just silly. China, with a economy roughly the size of California is the number 2 greenhouse gas emitter (and growing rapidly). I recently read that china is adding 1000 Megawatts of coal power per day. To put this in perspective, that’s about twice the size of a typical power plant in California, (which builds fewer than 1 power plant per year). Also, in addition to electrifying its rail system, China is also proposing to build a freeway network that is larger than the U.S. interstate system.

As for rail transportation, the U.S. has the best freight rail system in the world. It is energy efficient, gaining market share and doesn’t require any government subsidy. Unfortunately, our fixation on moving people by train, which doesn’t work well in the American context for several reasons, is threatening that network by taking capacity from freight routes and using it to move (few) people.

Passenger rail doesn’t work well in the U.S. because we are wealthy enough that car ownership is universal, because F.R.A. safety regulations require U.S. passenger trains to be extremely heavy (which makes them very expensive), because low population densities make electrification non cost effective and because freight railroads are very well engineered for heavy loads at slow speeds, which leads to very different design choices than if you’re engineering for light loads at high speeds.

]]> By: FTSandy http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-397 FTSandy Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:28:37 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-397 P.S. That photo of the decorated train in India reminds me of the of the Niles Canyon Railway at Christmastime. Fun pics here: http://www.elivermore.com/photos/ncry6.htm

]]> By: FTSandy http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/comment-page-1/#comment-396 FTSandy Fri, 08 Dec 2006 05:25:44 +0000 http://www.ibabuzz.com/transportation/2006/12/06/lessons-learned-from-the-third-world/#comment-396 I don’t know about China as a whole, but in Beijing quite a bit of the rail being added is specifically for the 2008 Olympic Games. The amount of track will grow from 114 km today to about 200 km. Which makes sense, since athletes and tourists attending the games won’t have their own transportation. The fact that it’s left over and available to the local population is a bonus. And they’re already planning to extend the new lines being built for the games. See http://en.beijing2008.com/75/13/article212051375.shtml

MTR (of Hong Kong) is building and will operate at least one of the lines.

And, tangentally, MTR is doing cool stuff with modeling Hong Kong’s rail system in digital form and using the model to plan improvements, schedule maintenance, and such. You can read a little about it here: http://design.tdctrade.com/suc-e517.htm

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