Mass Transit

[The Scotsman]

Interesting. The last thing on my mind when I think about commuting on public transport is the environment, for me it is one of convenience. For me the point of public transport is a cheap and efficient way for transporting workers from a to b. The daily commute!

Businesses grow if they have a supply of ready labour - most European cities have good public transport systems that are subsidised by tax payers through the wealth created by virtue of the fact that they have employment which allow cities and markets and economies to grow.

Another point - From your narrative you make it sound like you are going to rip the infrastructure out of a city and re-build it overnight! Surely these systems evolve over time spreading not only the inconvenience to the public but also the cost! Gradual introduction limits the negative impact and allows policy makers time to advertise the benefits and sensitise the public allowing a steady (hopefully) uptake of the service and thus paving the way for subsequent progress.

Just picking up again on your train of though on this environmental stuff, taking people out of cars and putting them on trains would I suggest have an impact on green house gasses yadda yadda but not as great as one would think? My though on that is that the energy transfer from private transport to public transport will probably not be that significant?........anyway that’s a different discussion entirely!

 

[Hobo1]

This is way off the subject - we've killed mass transit. But think of a similar system where you could receive packages via an underground conveyor belt or similar system to a delivery box at your house.

Someone could order off the internet from any store in town, and within a short time it would show up at your house via an underground tube transport system. Imagine how convenient that would be. It certainly would cut out a lot of short trips to the store - and a lot probably save on gasoline, etc.

That kind of system would be a lot cheaper to install and I think would be the ultimate in convenience for home and business alike. It could be made very energy efficient - so environmentally friendly.

Crazy idea that I've had for years - your idea of convenience brought back the idea!

 

[BigRob]

This is way off the subject - we've killed mass transit. But think of a similar system where you could receive packages via an underground conveyor belt or similar system to a delivery box at your house.

Someone could order off the internet from any store in town, and within a short time it would show up at your house via an underground tube transport system. Imagine how convenient that would be. It certainly would cut out a lot of short trips to the store - and a lot probably save on gasoline, etc.

That kind of system would be a lot cheaper to install and I think would be the ultimate in convenience for home and business alike. It could be made very energy efficient - so environmentally friendly.

Crazy idea that I've had for years - your idea of convenience brought back the idea!

In New York City in the 90's a company was started that would deliver by bike anything you ordered immediately after ordering it.

They ended up going out of business because they tried to warehouse everything anyone would ever order, which made the cost to high.

 

[Dr.Who]

This is way off the subject - we've killed mass transit. But think of a similar system where you could receive packages via an underground conveyor belt or similar system to a delivery box at your house.

Someone could order off the internet from any store in town, and within a short time it would show up at your house via an underground tube transport system. Imagine how convenient that would be. It certainly would cut out a lot of short trips to the store - and a lot probably save on gasoline, etc.

That kind of system would be a lot cheaper to install and I think would be the ultimate in convenience for home and business alike. It could be made very energy efficient - so environmentally friendly.

Crazy idea that I've had for years - your idea of convenience brought back the idea!

I would love that. I doubt it is practical now or people would be building them.

 

[Hobo1]

I would love that. I doubt it is practical now or people would be building them.

I served on an aircraft carrier which had a "bunny tube" - essentially a vacuum operated system that could send canisters the size of a one liter plastic bottle to many places on the ship. The primary purpose was to send messages to the proper locations throughout the 1/4 mile long ship. But a fair number of donuts, etc., were sent as well.

Really convenient. Maybe someday

 

[Dr.Who]

I served on an aircraft carrier which had a "bunny tube" - essentially a vacuum operated system that could send canisters the size of a one liter plastic bottle to many places on the ship. The primary purpose was to send messages to the proper locations throughout the 1/4 mile long ship. But a fair number of donuts, etc., were sent as well.

Really convenient. Maybe someday

Well when the system my bank uses at the drive-up starts being built from one end of town to the other end let's hope that the only contraband sent through is donuts and not things that go boom.