[syndicate] Traveling with no car in America

[April Mo(u)rning]

You are very earnest in your letter, and I admire that, so I hope that
you do not mind if I give another perspective from a native. I don't
know anyone who rides Greyhound. I myself, have only ridden it once. It
is common knowledge that Greyhound is for poor people or other
unfortunates. 

If you are riding Greyhound then you must not have enough money for a
flight, or you do not have friends that can drive you to the airport,
or you are a drunk and have had your liscense taken away. Most people
turn up their noses at Greyhound as being transport for crack heads and
other undesirables. They do serve their market well, I suppose.

All the kids get liscenses to drive when 15 1/2 (except the losers and
geeks). Then cars. Cars are cheap. Gas is cheap.

We have bad public transport because no one wants it, or we don't we
don't want it because we have bad public transport, I am not sure
which. Most just jump in a car -- even to go two blocks. I can't
imagine being without a car. It is odd when someone doesn't have a car
(must be some explanation).

This will only change when gas prices are allowed to rise to their
natural level. Americans have proven in the past that they are price
sensitive. I drive a little import that gets 40 mpg but I have to be
careful not to get run over by the monsters.


--- Ivo Skoric <ivo at reporters.net> wrote:
> Traveling without a car in the US
> 
> A lot has been said about the U.S. as the SUV nation. And it is true
> that 
> there are more cars than people in America. But there is a reason for
> that. 
> Public transportation sucks. It is at the level of Eastern Europe if
> not 
> worse: slow, inefficient, unreliable, discomforting, intrusive, and
> sporadic.
> 
> Take for example traveling between New York city and Rutland, VT. It 
> takes about 4.5 hours for average driver to complete that trip under 
> average traffic congestion and weather circumstances. On a good day I
> 
> can make it in under 3.5 hours, but I would discourage others of
> trying to 
> beat that, unless they are as avid State Trooper spotters as I am.
> 
> The alternative to the environmentally unfriendly, economically 
> disastrous, detrimental for world peace, single person car travel, is
> to 
> take a train or a bus. Amtrak runs a daily service between New York
> and 
> Rutland (Ethan Allen Express). According to Amtrak schedule it takes 
> between 5 hours and 10 minutes and 5 hours and 45 minutes to make
> that 
> trip.
> 
> Realistically, however, it always takes at least 20 minutes, and
> sometimes, 
> during rain, or snow, even longer. Western European customer is used
> to 
> train travel being faster and more reliable in varying weather
> conditions 
> than the road travel. Not so in the U.S. with out-dated railroads and
> with 
> cargo rail supremacy over the passenger rail travel.
> 
> Building a high speed rail system would do more for American economy 
> and security than building another aircraft carrier, but I am not
> sure 
> whether this US Administration would be open to such radical
> socialist 
> thinking.
> 
> Also, the train is usually late at departure. Not exactly counting on
> it, but 
> at least secretly hoping for that to happen, I was late for it this
> past 
> Sunday. Of course, as it goes, the train was not late at departure
> that 
> day, and I missed it.
> 
> Unfazed in my intention to make it to Rutland, so I can hit the
> slopes on 
> the next day (supposedly a powder day, but it wasn’t really, just a
> couple 
> of inches over hard, hard-pack), I went from Penn Station to Port 
> Authority, to get a bus.
> 
> Greyhound and Vermont Transit together run several buses daily that 
> connect New York city and Rutland. The one trip fare is $56 (compared
> to 
> Amtrak’s $61), if purchased in New York (it is $35 if purchased in 
> Rutland, an advice for bargain hunters). The Vermont based bus fare
> is 
> the only one to compare favorably to about slightly less than $30 I
> spend 
> on gas and tolls when traveling by car, if I don’t get a speeding
> ticket (in 
> which case car travel is probably more expensive that flying by
> airplane).
> 
> I purchased the ticket and went for the gate. If the schedule was to
> be 
> believed, the bus would leave in about 20 minutes. Inspired by the 
> nation-wide paranoia, Greyhound introduced a low-tech carry-on 
> luggage checkpoint on all its lines: two persons with an $80 hand
> held 
> metal detector, one frisks you, another goes through your carry-on 
> luggage to weed out any objectable items.
> To make their search easier, I volunteered to remove all the items
> that 
> could possibly be used as weapons, from my carry-on luggage to the 
> bag that’s going to go below in the bus underbelly. However, the 
> amicable young lady with pierced tongue, and her companion, decided 
> that one item needs to be seized, without reimbursement.
> 
> My protestations, that the seizure was unnecessary on grounds that I 
> cannot use the item that is locked underneath in the bus luggage 
> compartment, were met by the judicial explanation of how I could
> during 
> the stop in Albany, hypothetically ask the driver to get something
> from 
> my suitcase, and, bingo, turn to a cold blooded terrorist.
> 
> The item in question was a generic box-cutter knife, about $2 in
> value, so 
> I did not make a big stink about losing it. Also, they were right
> about the 
> possibility for passengers to access their unchecked bags (the ones
> that 
> are going to the luggage compartment). And there was no need to wait 
> until Albany for that. I had plenty of time and privacy to exchange
> the 
> entire contents between my backpack and my suitcase if I wanted.
> 
> In theory, if I had a 9mm in my suitcase - I could have volunteered
> the 
> box cutter from my backpack, which was checked, and then, before 
> boarding, take my 9mm from my suitcase, and put it in my backpack, 
> prepared to do some mayhem later. In hindsight, as this story would 
> develop, I do have some regrets of not having being better armed.
> 
> Ok, as the sloppy attempts on totalitarian state passed, the time of
> bus 
> departure (3:30 pm) came and went by, without bus materializing at
> the 
> gate. By 3:40 nervousness moved in the queue of prospective 
> passengers. The security checkers were still around, being the only 
> functioning detail of the corporation, which gave the whole event a 
> certain Eastern European aura, and people started asking them what’s 
> going on.
> 
> The bus driver was late, they said. Nothing can be done. Just wait. 
> Eventually, he shall come. And he did. At 3:50. If he was not black,
> with 
> his fur hat, with some sort of emblem in the middle, I would really
> think I 
> was in Russia. Particularly, when he came back in, after inspecting
> the 
> bus, to tell us that the bus is broken.
> 
> Whether they repaired it, or gave us a new bus, we finally boarded by
> 4 
> pm. Before he closed the doors, the driver lifted a blue duffle-bag
> from 
> the front seat, and asked the passengers: “whose bag is this?” There 
> was no answer. Apparently, nobody knew how with all that security an 
> entire bag, that nobody could claim, ended up on the front seat of
> the 
> bus. Eventually, the driver just tossed it out, and let security
> people deal 
> with it. We were, finally, on our way.
> 
> The travel to Albany was largely uneventful, and after the mandatory
> 20 
> minutes stay in Albany we were again on our way. Not for long. We got
> 
> another driver. He looked like a do-gooder pain in the ass from the 
> beginning. Dozen miles in our voyage and he made a turn to Albany 
> International Airport, stopped at the well lit Greyhound stop sign,
> went 
> out, found something wrong with the bus, came back in and told us
> that 
> he was returning the bus BACK to Albany, because he decided it was 
> unsafe for driving.
> 
> In Albany, he reassured us, we would be transferred to another bus. 
> Where is that 9mm when one needs it? True, when we came back to 
> Albany, we did get another bus. But the time lost already, plus the
> time 
> we were about to loose driving slow through the snow storm, which 
> made roads slippery and decreased visibility, made us one hour and
> forty 
> minutes later than scheduled on our arrival to Rutland.
> 
> I took me nearly eight (8) hours to complete the meager 251.3 miles
> trip 
> using public transportation. This is, at 31 miles per hour, about as
> fast as 
> one could go with the horse and carriage in 18th century. I could
> have 
> been there and back, if I drove. Maybe, the reasons for America’s 
> insatiable thirst for oil, and for its willingness to turn to
> violence to 
> satisfy that thirst (kind of like a crack addict), should be sought
> in the 
> tragic state of public transportation in the U.S.
> 
> Ivo   
> > 
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