Re: Beer and public transit (was Re: Beer from a vending machine? Good idea!)

> Lew Brys>> > Oh Guess:

>> >> "Easy city to get around in without a car" != "Easy to get from out in >> >> bumfuck suburbia into town, and back again easily." >> > >> >Well, damn, boy, you may not have noticed, but a whole LOT of us live in >the >> >suburbs! We're what sprawl is all about.

Hint: Sprawl is enabled by something. What is that something?

Also, the original post that spurred this discussion was about people who lived in *cities.* The OP posited that people in North American

*cities* didn't have the same public-transport options that people living in European cities do. I countered that with obvious examples of mass-transit options in American *cities.* The suburbs were not mentioned.

Another option not mentioned, of course, is to increase licensing options in sprawly suburban areas so people can *walk* somewhere to have a beer, then walk back home. I'm fortunate to have such circumstances in my current living arrangement. I know that vast numbers of people in the USA don't have such options. In all too many regions, that's as much the fault of pinheaded bureacrats and their licensing bureacracies as anything else.

> >This is the big blind spot of public transit types who wave their hands >and >> >praise mass transit as the solution to traffic congestion: LOTS of people >> >live AND work in the 'burbs. And lots of us live and DRINK in the 'burbs, >> >too. >> >> Those of us who wave our hands and use mass transit think >> you're part of the problem. ;-) > >You're missing the problem. You have a teeny-tiny partial solution, and like >ignerant bastids who think 120 Minute IPA is the be-all and end-all of beer, >you think you've found the magic potion. Solve sprawl, dammit, and don't >make me suffer to do it!

Sprawl won't be solved by mass transit. Sprawl is enabled by some- thing, though, and in your lifetime, that something will very likely go away. It is very possible that that something is going away sooner than you think. Take away the enabling factor, and sprawl will look like a very very bad option. Then what?

Not asking too much, am I? Suburbs are a fact, though, and they gotta be >included in a wise solution. Mass transit, as it exists, is not that.

If the something I'm thinking about goes away, will suburbs and the living patterns they engender continue to be a fact? Suburbs are a fact because of an enabling factor that allows people to live in this manner. If the factor goes away, what becomes of suburban sprawl?

Reply to
Oh, Guess
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You REALLY think the private auto will go away?

Or were you talking about female emancipation?

Reply to
Lew Bryson

It will change in nature, even if it doesn't go away, and relative chunk it will take out of a budget to power one is going to get much bigger in the future. The enabling factor to which I'm referring isn't the private auto per se, but the means of powering it (and many, many other things.)

Hey, I'm glad to have a female designated driver in the house on those occasions when one is handy to have around. Doesn't mean I couldn't have gotten home from last Tuesday's night out by another means, but I like having the company.

Reply to
dgs

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