Mass Transportation: The Need to Increase and Improve Individualized Mass Transit (Part 2)

Mass Transportation: The Need to Increase and Improve Individualized Mass Transit

Part 2

How Do We Improve Mass Transit

To improve our infrastructure in the United States, we must consider alternative forms of mass transportation while better utilizing the alternatives we have. We should focus on three areas: ports and waterways, high-speed rail systems, and Rapid Urban Flexible. To improve or establish these areas, we must devise ways to increase funding and, more importantly, invest both private and public funds in our transportation system, something we currently are not doing.

For moving large amounts of goods, we need to move toward ports, waterway, and high speed railways. Ships are slower than current modes of transit but are able to contain much more and cost considerably less. By upgrading our port system, we will be better able to utilize our nation’s vast waterways and more quickly move large amounts of goods from ships and barges to high speed rails cars. To connect the ports and waterways with factories and the third phase of the transit plan RUF, we need to replace our railroads and freight trucks with high speed railways bent on transporting goods and people from place to place. High speed railways are faster than freight trucks and more energy efficient. Under this system, they can also be easily connected to join RUF when nearing major cities.

Rapid Urban Flexible (www.ruf.dk) inclusion focus’s on the individual commuter and would replace the current interstate highway system we have now that is slow moving, congested, too bulky, environmentally unfriendly, energy inefficient, and aesthetically disheartening. RUF was developed by Denmark scientist Palle R. Jensen in an effort to combine the best of both the railway and the automobile. Under RUF, only local roads remain in tact. The highways are replaced with automated high-speed rails that allow for coupling of automobiles, nonstop traffic flow ranging from 20 to 30 mph at intersection to 70 to 90 mph in the city to 120 to 150 mph between cities. The cars, rufs as they are known, are dual mode, able to operate on both roads and on high-speed rails. When on the rails, they are fully automated allowing the driver to type in where he or she wants to go and then being able to sit back and relax, take a nap, or use the high-speed internet to do research for an assignment therefore providing better customer service. With the system being fully automated, consumer productivity will increase as they are able to focus on other things while traveling and not waste time driving or standing in line at a subway station. Also, unlike other mass transit systems, RUF runs on the individual’s schedule, not some train or subway schedule, departing whenever the consumer is ready.

To improve our transportation system, we must be willing to invest in our future, not continually patch up the present as we have been. The estimated cost of RUF to fully implement nationally is somewhere around $1.2 Trillion. This may seem expensive but the U.S. currently spends around $50 Billion a year federally plus what the states pay to improve and expand our interstate highway system meaning in 25 years, we can pay to fully implement RUF if we put the money in the right place. Also, moving goods off highways and onto waterways and railways while also replacing the highway system with RUF will greatly reduce automobile accidents which cost the U.S. economy more than $240 Billion annually. Short-term methods of paying for high-speed railways and port improvement could be to charge a user fee based on distance traveled value of merchandise, and size, a fee companies should be willing to pay in exchange for cheaper and faster transport of their goods in the long term and short term.

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Transportation and Logisticsare the arteries and veins of America. We don't need blood clots. Kick the butter.

Mass Transportation: The Need to Increase and Improve Individualized Mass Transit (Part 1)

Mass Transportation: The Need to Increase and Improve Individualized Mass Transit

Part 1

Currently, in the United States, we need not only to improve mass transit but to create new forms. The focus should be on efficiency, time, convenience, and safety in the eyes of the consumer. Time is very valuable whether it is the time to go from place to place, the time with our families, or the time to do our jobs and partake in hobbies. Unfortunately, time seems to be disappearing from our individual’s schedule. How do we give people back more of their time as it relates to their commute and travel time while making sure they are also safe?

Why We Need to Improve Mass Transit

Today, we face many problems in meeting our current and future transportation needs. First, the price of fueling our transportation system continues to rise with the cost of oil. Just last week, for the first time ever, the cost of oil rose above $50 per barrel increasing the cost of the commute for every consumer and the cost of transporting goods. “Optimist” experts predict oil production to peak by 2035, then drop as demand continues to increase, causing oil prices to shoot from the $40 to $50 a barrel consumers have become used to to $80 or $90 a barrel (Roberts).

Second, traffic congestion plagues our cities as numerous cities from New York to Detroit to Denver to the state of Mississippi are looking for cheaper ways to improve transit in their cities. Expanding highways seems to be too cumbersome, too expensive, and too inefficient. “In many metropolitan areas, the congestion index has grown by one-third over the last decade” while the rail system, carriers of 30% of the volume of goods (same as trucks), has also experienced major bottlenecks (Tuttle 47). By 2040, congestion is predicted to increase as the number of private autos/light trucks rises by 40%, from 200 million to over 280 million vehicles. At the same time, the need for large freight trucks is expected to triple, going from 7 million to 21 million (Tuttle 49). “If the nation does not triple transportation capacity in the next 40 years, [it is predicted] that the economy will not grow 2 to 4% annually and incomes will not grow as expected” (Tuttle 51). Productivity growth resulting from the boom in information technology “will be blocked by a crippled and congested infrastructure” (Tuttle 51). The benefits of Just In Time production will be lessened as it will take longer to move goods from point-to-point and the increased cost of logistics will result in an increase in prices for consumers.

Third, the human element of the highway system fosters an unsafe environment despite improvements in the last 30 years. In the United States, over 40,000 people were killed in motor vehicle accidents in 2002 and over 2.3 million were injured (UN Tackles Roadway Safety). Worldwide, motor vehicle crashes are the second leading cause of death among those ages 5 to 29 and the third leading cause of death among those ages 30 to 44 (UN Tackles Roadway Safety). The burden hits financially also as the U. S. lost over $240 Billion worth of economic productivity in 2002 (UN Tackles Roadway Safety). In comparison, the U.S. government has only spent $218 billion over the last six years on highway construction and improvements with future plans calling for somewhere around $300 billion (Abrams). However, even the $300 billion plan is not nearly enough to meet the transportation demands of the future, at least under the current system.

Finally, Americans are busier than ever. Both parents are working more, leaving less time to cook a healthy meal, watch a child’s soccer game, help with homework, or prepare themselves for a more technologically sound society. Therefore, we must invent a way to better serve consumers, whether it is industry or the average commuter. This means we must develop a safe, efficient, stable, and predictable means of transit for the long term, not just tomorrow or next year or the next 20 years, but beyond.

Part 2 to follow = How to Improve Mass Transit

“A Future Unattainable”

Below is a brief look at education, politics, and leadership based on observations I have made through school and my involvement in the political process. If something is unclear in the writing, ask.

Education is in our imaginations,
Not in numbers and letters.
Education is wanting to learn and expand,
Not be trapped under the rules of grammar
And the restraint of expression.

We complain about our politicians,
They’re only able to criticize others plans we say
But never offer us there own.

We wonder why all they offer us
Are patchwork and the staunchest of criticism,
Yet we continue to teach our future
The rules of grammar and restraint,
Not the gift of self imagination.

We breed in our leaders and our people
The ability to correct and to modify,
Not to redefine life and hope,
Not to amaze us with creation.

Hence, we are left without a dream, a new vision.
I mean, why offer us a new direction
When all we ever ask of them
Is to poke at the technique
And patch up mere drawbacks?

If we want a new vision,
Then demand it from them,
But don’t forget to show them how to make one
And where a new path of liberty and distinction comes from.

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Now go vote and fight for what you believe. And when you learn and write, remember why and what, not how. Let your mind speak.

To Mom's

To the art of Motherhood and Mom's everywhere, especially My momma,

Being that it is the day after Mother's Day, I thought I would talk about the importance of mom's.

Well, of course, the give birth to most all of us but, come on, they do do more than that. They work and take care of the kids. Never tell a mom she doesn't have a job b/c being the mom is a full time one. Mom's cook your dinner and wash your clothes and take you to the park and drive you to school and push you around in a stroller and worry about you whenever you go off somewhere. Mom's help you with your homework and insist you do it and do it on time or even early (if my mom was at MSU with me, I would have all my work done early and never late b/c i would have to do it before i could get on the computer or watch tv or go play or politic. That was always my mom's rule. Of course, she would see when we were just tired and needed a break on those occasions and let us run off to play with benjamin, kevin, & cynthia (GA); kyle & gang (starkville); and Paul, Rebecca, & Chastity (TN). My momma is the reason I make good grades when I do and the reason I am usually pretty well behaved.

I'm not really sure what all to say. It basically comes down to this:

"My mom is my mom and nobody could ever be as good a mom to me as she was."

No matter what I say when she is complaining about my apartment not being clean or my table manners. Of course I think that is just a momma thing. My dad is messier than I am, although he wouldn't admit it.

Anyway, mom's are the best. Vote Donkey.

P.S. = Is it bad to wait til almost 7 to call (thats when i left to go to Corinth) and tell your mom happy birthday. Maybe, but that was 3.5 hours before my brother who finally called about 10:30 to keep me from calling for the 3rd time to get him too.

P.S. # 2 = Work and my traditional summer exercise officially began today, the first official day of summer break) when I was up at 5 am with work kicking off at 7 (light work day today). Off to do the afternoon/night exercising that will go til around 9 tonight, with dinner in the middle.

Mississippi Needs Money and Leaders

We, Mississippi, lack money. We need money. Our senators and representatives are scared to death to vote on a tax increase. Our governor makes the idea of a tax increase sound like torture. Of course, squeezing the life out of education and medicare might be a wee bit more torturous. Especially for that child or grandmother who lost their healthcare plans or have had them cut tremendously over the last 2 years. Pretty sad not to be able to go see the doctor when they are sick or in pain. Then, if contagious, it just spreads. Of course, we meanwhile provide millions and millions of dollars in tax incentives and infrastructure to businesses so they come (as most other states do also; pick a cutoff point states; offer the same vale plan, even if in different aspects instead of undercuttin each other).

Think about that kid who wants to go to college but makes just enough he doesn't get federal grants or little financial aid but not nearly enough to pay for the rising tuition. Shouldn't he or she have the opportunity to be all that they can be too.

Come on State Leaders. For once, look out for the future of the State of Mississippi and for its people instead of your reelection hopes. You keep diggin us a hole, republicans and democrats combined. Sadly, thats about the only thing our state leaders and reps manage to do together as of late. Sacrifice Mississippi for personal gain.