Tendo City

Well, yeah.

:D

Did you just say "You can't even take a bus to the mall" as though it's actually a shocker that there's no bus for that? I think one of the malls in Tulsa happens to have a bus stop there, but honestly I have NO idea when the buses even show up, if at all. I'm actually starting to think they were just never removed after some ancient failed experiment by the city to try out a bus system.

Damn, that's nuts. I mentioned the mall because kids in that town can't even go to the mall to hang out on weekends, they have to hang out at McDonald's.

OB1 Wrote:No, it would not be advantageous for everyone, or for every town in America. However, most of the places I've been to in Virginia desperately need a good tram or bus system. Ah, I forgot the exact name of the town where my sister lives, but you cannot go anywhere in that town without a car. You can't even hop on a bus to go to the mall. It's that bad.

I wasn't aware there were many towns in America that you could get around without a car.

Quote:Buying large amounts of groceries is a valid point, but how often do you buy $80 worth of groceries? In Croatia we'd just have to walk a block to get to the nearest grocery store and get some bread and cheese or whatever to last us a few days. That would be impossible here in Fort Collins since there are only huge super markets every few miles rather than small stores every few blocks. So you would need a car to buy groceries. But for everything else, going to work and school, a nice tram system makes a huge difference. Don't knock it 'til you've experienced it.

If you have a family, especially with children, $80 is a conservative estimate for a weekly trip.

Also, I took a bus to school for ten years. If anything, that soured my opinion for public transportation.

Here in Richmond, they set up a bus between the city and Chesterfield County, where I live. They called it the Chesterfield Link, and it was designed to bring Chesterfield residents into the city to increase business. What it ended up doing was bringing the scum from inside the murder capital of America out into the suburbs. Link was scrapped, and then brought back. Dunno what's going on with it now.

Quote:I wasn't aware there were many towns in America that you could get around without a car.

Uh, that is precisely my point, Weltall.

Quote:If you have a family, especially with children, $80 is a conservative estimate for a weekly trip.

Also, I took a bus to school for ten years. If anything, that soured my opinion for public transportation.

Here in Richmond, they set up a bus between the city and Chesterfield County, where I live. They called it the Chesterfield Link, and it was designed to bring Chesterfield residents into the city to increase business. What it ended up doing was bringing the scum from inside the murder capital of America out into the suburbs. Link was scrapped, and then brought back. Dunno what's going on with it now.

Public transportation in this country sucks. You have not experienced great, efficient, and super-easy public transportation, so the idea confuses and scares you. The rest of the world does it right, and it's not a problem. Most Americans are terrified of change and doing things the simpler, more sensible way. I doubt I'll ever live to see great public transportation in this country, but I can always hope for it.

Subways... the one I have the most time on, obviously, is the Boston one. I've been on plenty of others a few times, but I don't remember most that well...

But in Europe those are the same as they are here, just with them in every major city and not just a few (Boston, New York, Washington, etc...). It's railroads and buses that are the big differences. Buses? As OB1 said, Weltall, your experience hasn't exactly been with a great public transportation system...

Trains, though, are the biggest difference. They have them. Going everywhere. And they are very convenient and stop in a lot of towns. All three (funny about that... a year, a month, and a week... :D) times I went to Europe we used them quite a lot... you just can't do anything remotely like that in the US. Oh, size is part of it, but hardly all... they just set up that huge network of rail while we use highways and airplanes...

In the US you only have good rail if you're ... um, in the commuter rail zone in the cities along the Boston-to-Washington cooridor? Though I don't know anything about US commuter rail and have never used it so I can't say much more than that...

Japan has bullet trains. I wish I could ride on a bullet train.

Edmonton has a train system within the city. Very easy (and quick, if you minus the 90 minute drive to the city) to get to football games that way.

Bullet trains do sound cool... I've heard France has a very fast train as well. Not sure which one is faster though...

But probably the coolest sounding trains would be Maglev. When will they start making those? :)