Best way to Baltimore?

[HoyaSaxa03]

Originally posted by white man from town:
  anyway, if we lived in a world that public transportation was affordable, accessible and efficient (Europe), then i am sure we would all be driving less.
 

i actually think its the other way around, if we lived in a world where gas was $4-6 a gallon (Europe), then i am sure we would all be driving less, public transportation or not.
 
 http://www.energybulletin.net/4906.html

[jkeisenh]

Originally posted by white man from town:
    in fact, i think you are in cars plenty, you just bum rides from other people....which is also really cool.

carpools are fun.
 
 no, i really don't want to argue.  i just think while everyone is saying 'i like to take road #3263' i can say 'i like my train.'  
 
 in the ideal world, we all know, all good bands would play nextdoor to our houses.  ah, voltaire.
 
 and by the way... tho' it's not obvious here, i don't actually talk about transportation much in my day-to-day life.  it's just always coming up on the board for some reason.  actually, i think this board is probably the only place i interact with suburbanites.

[chaz]

Chimbly-
 
 I gotta agree with Bags.  As someone who worked in the transportation reform community for quite a few years, one of the biggest roadblocks I saw facing that community was the condescending holier than thou attitude of many of my colleagues.  All it does is alienate the very people that they were trying to convince, convert or whatever.  
 
 Not everyone who gets behind the wheel of car is an ignorant earth hating neanderthal you know.....
 
 I don't think any reasonable person would argue that cars are destructive to the environment, that the transportation system as it exists today is not an equitable one, that the feds earmark too many dollars for highways and not enough for public transportation, that dot's should fix the dilapitated roads that exist before building new ones, that the creation of new transportation infrastructure does not take into account the associated environmental impacts....blah blah blah blah.
 
 But the bottom line is some of us need our cars.
 
 I am done.

[sonickteam]

Originally posted by HoyaSaxa03:
   

Originally posted by white man from town:
  anyway, if we lived in a world that public transportation was affordable, accessible and efficient (Europe), then i am sure we would all be driving less.
 

i actually think its the other way around, if we lived in a world where gas was $4-6 a gallon (Europe), then i am sure we would all be driving less, public transportation or not.
 
  http://www.energybulletin.net/4906.html [/b]

maybe not the other way around, but certainly yet another reason to do so.  If gas prices here were $4-$6 a gallon, I would still be faced with almost an hour commute (public trans) instead of my 12 minute car ride, and the MARC train would still not be a viable option for DC shows or weekend trips.
 
   i hate driving though, scares the piss out of me, on the highway at least.

[Venerable Bede]

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
  but it's not going to stop me from advocating for smart alternatives.

but the train is not a smart alternative for most people, if it's an alternative at all.  if you want clean, fresh air, move to a nice and simple rural area. . .

[sonickteam]

$32 to Baltimore and back?  thats smart!

Please stay away from Baltimore.  It's always a good idea to avoid cities that Tom Clancy likes.

[kosmo vinyl]

Originally posted by white man from town:
  $32 to Baltimore and back?  thats smart!

but given gas prices + parking it might be cheaper for a single driver...  
 
 what annoys me is its almost as  cheap for two people to drive and park at the 9:30 club then it is take the metro.  especially during the week when they collect parking at the greenbelt station until midnight.

[sonickteam]

Originally posted by kosmo vinyl:
   especially during the week when they collect parking at the greenbelt station until midnight.

i have never, ever even once, paid to park at the Greenbelt Metro station, and i have never come or gone after midnight.  did they just start doing that?

[kosmo vinyl]

yup... post parkingate at wmata they collect parking until the station closes now, they also require the use of a smartcard to exit.  the irony of course is they still pay someone to sit in the booth until closing.  it's $3.50 and i can't believe they collect that much more money in the couple hours they extended it.  one can save money by using the meters after a certain point.

[sonickteam]

Originally posted by Dupek Chopra:
 
 What in the hell would you know about it anyway...aren't you from goddamned Ontario, or something?

haha. i am from Ontario!  but i have lived here for more or less 10 years. (give or take 2 in Boston). seriously, i am amazed every time i drive around this place now.

[Bags]

Originally posted by chimbly sweep:
 I'm just finding this love-for-driving crusade a little tedious, especially since I live here and have to breathe the air that unnecessary car trips pollute and all that.

It wasn't as much this particular thread as ALL of the threads.  I think folks living out of town or doing things not conducive to public transport isn't exactly a "love for driving crusade."  I take the bus a LOT, but you know, I DO love driving.  I lived in DC without a car for 8 years, and I am DAMN happy to have one again.

[nkotb]

Bike-talk is the Brit-pop of 2005 on this board.  You can't escape it.

[ggw]

Does anyone have any experience with sending a bike across the country?
 
 I need to get my steed out to Durango in August.

[chaz]

Originally posted by ggwâ?¢:
  Does anyone have any experience with sending a bike across the country?
 
 I need to get my steed out to Durango in August.

GGW...correct me if I'm wrong but didn't you vote republican in the last election?  What's a GOP'er like you doing with a bike...shouldn't you be driving an Escalade or something out there?