They don't make 'em like they use to

[expressbus]

Jeremy and Jim,

Yep, those are the same wires we had in Baltimore, Maryland years ago. The streetcars and trackless trolleys were the one place we could escape into air conditioning back then. They brought communities together. Today, stay at home, drive your personal car or bus and air conditioning is right there. No need to meet others in your community.

Do you know what they call a pig in a dress? Yep, a pig. Same old technology dressed up in a pretty new dress.

Try getting those wires and support poles built in a US city today and yours ears will be filled with the screams of environmentalists complaining of the wires intrusion on the ambiance of their city.

Sad situation.

[CrabbyMilton]

Well these days I really don't want to meet the people that leave bodily waste on the seat next to me on the bus. I'm not saying that everyone who rides a transit but is a drunken bum or criminal. But every drunken bum,criminal or just plain goof that stinks rides a transit bus at times and I would not want to get to know them. That's what gives transit a bad name but nobody wants to be "mean" and put them in prison or some other place to help them and protect the people who either can't of elect not to own a car and just want to go to work or shopping. I only ride our transit system once a year to our state fair since parking is a mess and on a trip like that, you'll encounter no criminal thugs or bums. I wish I could say that for many other routes but the calls on the scanner validates the arguement to stay away. Here in Milwaukee our mayor wants to add an electric trolley that goes in a circle in a small part of town and all of the envrionmental nut are all for this since they hate cars. So while this new electric bus may look sharp, years from now it will stink and look bad givwn the currrent way in the big cities.

[Jeremy]

I saw this quote - attributed to Margaret Thatcher - quite recently in an article about the difficulty of running a profitable bus service:

"A man who, beyond the age of 30, finds himself on a bus can count himself as a failure."

And, for good or worse, it's true - that is exactly how society regards traveling on buses nowadays

Jeremy

[Jon]

I grew up in the NYC area, on the NJ side of the Hudson River and the Empire State Building was visible through our living room window. We used public transportation a lot. It just made sense if we were going into the city, or even if we were visiting relatives in Hoboken or Jersey City. It wasn't always practical to drive.

But today I do associate public transportation (including Greyhound) as being the transportation of those considered "less fortunate". To bad because there are times it is nice to not have to be responsible for finding a parking space or having to sit in slow moving traffic.

[CrabbyMilton]

In a city like New York and Chicago, it's not often practical to own a car unless you live on the fringes of the city.
Charter type buses or special event shuttle transits need not be counted. So there is some validity to the late prime minister's statement though it may be too broad of brush since not all buses are the same or serve the same market base.

[Iceni John]

And here's London's take on the whole electric-bus-thing:  http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20141028-the-bus-that-recharges-on-the-go   Inductive charging seems to have a lot of potential (so to speak), especially with a diesel-electric drivetrain such as in the new Routemaster.   The article talks about charging when the bus is 6" above the plate  -  how long will it be until there is inductive charging built into the roads so vehicles can draw power while moving?

John

[Lin]

Few people know it, but before Thatcher went into politics she was a chemist who specialized in how to increase the air in ice cream.  The next time you eat crappy ice cream, think of Maggie.

[digesterman]

Actually Lin a certain amount of air is needed to prevent ice crystals from forming, a little more air added makes soft ice cream, and that is the favorite of many people.

Mrs. Thatcher was perhaps one of the best leaders England ever had. Didn't know she was a chemist too, good to know.

[HB of CJ]

I once lived in San Francisco CA USA in the Sunset District.  Kirkham and 19th Ave.  Rode the electric Muni practically every morning and night to and from work South of Market St.  Only on the rare fair sunny days did I ride my nice 10 speed bicycle.

At night and during fog you could hear the "zapping" of the trollie cars and electric buses.  Sometimes if the wind was right, you could actually smell the ozone.  This was back in around 1970.  I wonder what "The City" has now?  HB of CJ (old coot)

[Lee Bradley]

Don't know about SF but Seattle still has the overhead wires and trolleys.

[shelled]

Jeremy - back in the day, here in Dallas, we had milk trucks like the Divco with gasoline (oops, petrol) engines.  Plastic milk jugs made that a thing of the past. I remember bringing in milk bottles with several inches of frozen milk emerging fron the neck on freezing winter mornings and plastic bottles just don't handle that gracefully.

Crabby - Thankfully I don't live where you do.  Here in Dallas, DART has its own police force and you're better protected on the bus than in your home. Additionally, we can ride real street cars provided by the non-profit McKinney Avenue Trolley group who run a collection of restored street cars from around the world - price is free tho' donations are welcome. Then there's the light rail that has upscale shopping and housing developing around many of its urban and suburban stations... YMMV in other cities :-)

edward

[CrabbyMilton]

Well Milwaukee has it's good and bad things but we really get the environment we deserve. Milwaukee County Transit does have a private security force that does an ok job of protecting the system but when the criminal justice system keeps turning the pukes out, there's only so much that can be done let alone overcoming the poor image of transit in Milwaukee. In other words, more law enforcement would help but our county board has it's collective head in places we shouldn't talk about on here.
If some non profit group wants to pay for something they love fine but I don't. Nostelga is wonderful for museums but the fact that such items are in museums should indicate that most people don't want them in day to day life. We pay for enough things we don't need with money we don't have so rubber tire buses for those that can't drive or elect not to and cars and cabs for the rest of us is where I stand.

[Seangie]

Now you have a reason to buy a 50k watt diesel generator



Wandering the country in a 1984 Eagle 10S. 
www.herdofturtles.org