Informed but opinionated commentary and analysis on urban transportation topics from the Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal. Names have been omitted to protect the guilty.

Our Mission: Monkeywrench the Anti-Transit Forces

 
OTHER TRANSIT BLOGS – 1

Home of More Transit Links Than You can Possibly Check(tm), Unless you have no life other than websurfing

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity: and I'm not so sure about the universe. Einstein


From the Cabalmaster:

As Intrepid Websurfers know, there are other blogs online with a transit-oriented theme.

(Other than the one you’re reading, right this very moment.)

No, we here at The Secret Worldwide Transit Cabal are NOT the only bloggers dedicated to truth, justice, and quality public transportation.

One of our favorite transit blogs is “The Third Rail,” thirdrail.smorgasblog.com. It tends to emphasize East Cost coverage (. . . yeah, East Coast . . . ya got a problem wid dat???) with lively editorial commentary. Here’s a choice excerpt:

“And stay out!

“So the Republican National Conventioneers won't use the subway for their convention this summer (well, not quite summer, more like week before 9/11).

“So what. New Yorkers don't want you there anyway. Speaking as a former long-time straphanger, I can firmly say I wouldn't want to find myself rushing down a flight of stairs in an attempt to catch an uptown N train to find Rick Santorum blocking the passage, lecturing his friends on how the smell is a sign of liberal decadence and the decline of western civilization.

“I don't care.

“And if he remained in my way, I would not hesitate to shove him.

“One of the things that makes drivers so unwilling to switch to transit is that they don't like being around people they don't know without a pane of glass separating them. Conventioneers probably don't want a rude awakening about life beyond their subdivision, so it isn't up to New York to give it to them.”


Another choice excerpt:

“Blinded by the (length of your) flight

“Or, why slow and steady sometimes does win the race

“From an article on the financial failure of the Channel Tunnel :

“‘And then there are rivals that barely existed in 1994: budget airlines.
There are 50 daily round-trip flights between London and Paris, most of
them much cheaper than a Eurostar ticket; many travelers think planes are
quicker even though the train is much faster city center to city center.
The rail journey between central London and central Paris is two and a
half hours; while the flight itself is only an hour, once airport travel
is taken into account, the journey is much longer.’

“I also find this phenomenon true in the U.S. You can take a 3.5 hour train ride from the middle of Boston to the middle of New York City. For more money (depending on special deals, time of booking and time/date etc...), you can take a 45-minute airplane ride from the periphery of Boston to the periphery of New York City. Add to that 30-minute cab rides at both ends and the suggested two-hour advance arrival for domestic flights, you don't really get where you're going any faster. Even if the plane cost as much as the train, the cabs would easily make the journey more expensive.

“So why do people take the plane? They like it for the same reason people set off from a green light like it's a drag race even if they can see they will have to stop for a red light and will leave the next intersection at the same time a slower driver will. When it comes to travel, man is not a coldly rational homo economicus - he wants to reach maximum speed instead of minimum time, even if time has value.”

A transit blog with “’tude” (attitude). We love it!!!

posted by The Cabalmaster, Master of All Transit-dom 5/22/2004 06:29:00 PM