Mass Transit's Great - If You Can Use It
Public transit's a great way to save gas (and thus money). The problem is, most of us can't use it even if we wanted to.This is true for country folk as much as it is for those who live in and near major cities. In Washington, D.C., for example, most people live in outlying suburban counties which were built up with no real thought given to mass transit. There is a metro rail line - but it only extends so far and stations are often miles away from the tract developments where so many people live. To use the trains, these people must first use their cars.
Driving is not a choice - it's often essential.
Car-pooling isn't much of an option, either - unless you happen to live very close by to co-workers or people who work for employers near your employer. And share the same office hours. If not, coordinating pick-up/drop-off times can be hugely inconvenient at best - virtually impossible at worst. And then there's shopping, picking up the kids at day-care, getting them to and from their after-school and weekend activities.
Almost all of it demands a car.
This is a debacle of our own creation. Years of development based upon the premise of cheap fuel have given us far-flung suburbs and exurbs utterly dependent on cars. People wanted more affordable housing - or just to get away from the perceived (and often very real) problems of the close-in city environment - including bad schools, high taxes, crime and urban blight . New communities sprang up to meet this demand - each one just a little farther out than the last. In some metropolitan areas, the "suburbs" can extend for more than 50 miles from the downtown areas where people go to work each day. As far as viable public transportation - there isn't any.
People drive where they need to go.
This was ok (notwithstanding long and tortuous commutes) so long as fuel prices remained reasonable. But over the past year or so, we've had to cope with a near-doubling of the cost of filling up. A $25 tankful now costs $50 (or more). Most experts believe this is not a temporary fluctuation; they do not see prices ever going back to the $1.50 per gallon we were paying just a few short years ago. If we're lucky, they'll stabilize at between $2.50 or so and $3 per gallon. If we're unlucky -- or there's a war involving Iran - we could easily see $4 or even $5 per gallon.
Maybe more.
Our situation is analogous to that of a chronically obese, sedentary fellow who is concerned about the sudden onset of sharp chest pains. He's spent years destroying his body - and recovery won't be easy. Nor will it happen overnight. And he may be past the point of no return already.
Similarly, there's little we can do in the short term to redress the problem of allowing developers to build far-flung residential housing with no provision made (other than cars) to get people to work.
Blame politicians for that.
It will take years - and massive investment - to build the rail and other infrastructure that should have been built right alongside each new development. These costs were hidden from the people who bought the "affordable" houses miles from their place of employment; but they are costs which will have to be dealt with nonetheless - whether in the from of ever-higher commuting costs or the new taxes necessary to fund the public infrastructure that was left out of the original equation.
Meanwhile, millions of people are stuck with fat, adjustable-rate mortgages in distant suburbs driving large vehicles that get poor gas mileage (and which typically are years away from being paid-off) and no alternative but to keep on keepin' on - for as long as they can get credit or at least make that minimum monthly payment, anyhow.
The ride ahead could get bumpy. Better buckle up...
