Friday, June 11, 2010

Latest and Best Step to Reduce Fossil-Fuel Dependency

The impressive Megabus now announces the opening of a new hub in the City of Brotherly Love. The highly nimble, highly successful interstate bus company is obviously succeeding in its goal to get people who would otherwise drive to park their cars and enjoy express bus service on a double-decker with WiFi, movies, music and comfort.

We meanwhile update our previous reviews by stating that we now have significant anecdotal testimony from experienced riders that Megabus is offering excellent, even improving service that delights its customers. We affirm our warm recommendation of this service to any and all who consider it.

And we figure that this thoughtful deployment of existing technology is just what we need to continue the trend toward efficiency in the usage of fossil fuels, those substances the use of which seems so to trouble so many earnest folk. Enjoy your windmills, your solar cells, your plug-in cars, your ethanol subsidies. We'll take the bus.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

What about monorails, such as the one in Seattle, for the county?

Does not China have a system that uses magnets?

Why did GM and a few other corporations can the plan to put a monorail in Los Angeles?

We know the answers to these questions but when will citizens' choice rule?

carl said...

ditto swnid.

we have used the megabus from baltimore to manhattan many times without a single hiccup.

Unknown said...

It seems that MegaBus USA has surpassed MegaBus UK—you guys get WiFi???? Lets hope that this is an omen for tonight's WC match.

CDW said...

@anon - Please watch the Simpsons episode "Marge vs. the Monorail" and then comment again once you're informed on the issue.

Anonymous said...

Megabus is a good thing but mere thoughtful deployment of existing technology is just part of what needs to happen. I guess a conservative is always going to conserve the old ways and always poo poo the possibility of new (maybe even non-fossil fuel?) technologies. We definitely need fossil fuels but their uses far exceed getting your sorry-assed families of four to work and school every day, each in one's own car.

Jon A. Alfred E. Michael J. Wile E. SWNID said...

Anon, we'd respond, but why should we when you (a) clearly haven't read our prior posts on public transportation and profligate investment in nonexistent technologies; (b) prefer to stereotype conservatives?

We don't "poo poo new technologies." We do question the ability of government to invest vast sums productively in what is ridiculously speculative, looking for a Great Leap Forward in what will inevitably be a long pattern of incremental change.

By the way, we ask whether cars are really all that bad that the enlightened few need to force the ignorant masses out of them, even if it costs a king's ransom to do so. Note that stats on air quality versus passenger miles over the last generation and realize that the first has improved steadily while the other has increased even more steadily. That's new technology too. But because it uses petroleum, where's the fun, right?

Still, thanks for the grudging acknowledgment that thoughtful deployment of existing technology might be worth considering at least alongside utopian efforts to defy markets, physics and sociology. You are not beyond hope.

By the way, the SWNIDish family of four has extremely unapologetic posteriors. Keep your highly original vulgarities to yourself.

Jim Shoes said...

Anon, what makes you think that people would ride in trains when they won't ride in buses? When public transportation is barely used in this country except in those few places where population density makes cars impractical for many, why will newer technologies make it more attractive?

Why should we invest the capital in fixed-rail trains when buses, which can run on almost any paved surface, don't require the same investment?

BTW, I'll bet you lunch that SWNID has ridden more public transportation in more places than you.

Get real, nameless dude!