Telecom (off topic) - Re: Clean Technology Bigger than Internet

Unfortunately for such transit systems, most cities in the U.S.A. have
> grown in the automobile era so that there is no real focus for public > transportation -- no central point. This makes it almost necessary to > have a car, since there is no practical way to serve all the > criss-crossing travel patterns which in some cities may have the > majority of travel.

It is worse than that. The key to a successful public transit system is housing and workplace density. Without a sufficient concentration of people and jobs, there are not enough riders able to use public transportation without using their cars -- at one end or the other.

There are some places where this is not true in limited areas. There > is no way I would try to drive in New York City, with its excellent > public transit system. San Francisco's seems to work well, too. It > is said that Boston's does too, but I have no personal experience.

Even in New York, there are exceptions. My father was ten minutes from work by car - but about 45 minutes by public transportation. Even worse, he had to change from bus to subway in an iffy neighborhood, and then walk from the subway to work in a neighborhood which was not iffy at all - it was unquestionably dangerous. But he had a parking spot in the basement of building in which he worked (evening shift). Needless to say, I did not get many opportunities to drive his car ...

Mark