Let's talk transit for a second. I know, tres exciting, but let's also talk about naming a child Trey. I know that some people are nicknamed Trey (or even Trip, which frankly is just dumb) because they are Suchandsuch McSuchandsuch the third. I gotta say, it sort of seems ballsy to walk around with a name like Trey. Hats off to all y'all Treys out there.
Okay, let's get back to transit.
I've mentioned before that I miss the San Francisco MUNI. I miss being able to fairly quickly and fairly easily get around a city. I've always wondered why a city like Seattle, which considers itself ecologically minded, doesn't have a better mass transit system. Your options of getting around the rather expansive city itself are fairly grim, but let's say you're coming over from the East Side, from Bellevue. Nothing. There's the Sound Transit, which is mildly helpful if you're heading North or South of Seattle a couple of times a day.
We were discussing this at work today, and it's a subject that frustrates me to no end. Take Europe for a second. Seriously, just hold it for a second. C'mon, I need to examine my zipper, pretty darn quick.
If I were in Amsterdam right now... Mmmmmm, if only I were in Amsterdam right now... Sorry, if I were in Amsterdam, and went to the central train station, and wanted to go to... Let's see... Brussels, Belgium, I would have 5 trains to choose from that would get me there in 3 hours. If I wanted to go to Paris? Again, 5 trains to pick from to get me there in 4 hours. Berlin? 5 trains, 6 hours.
Now, let's say I'm in Seattle and I want to get on a train somewhere today. Well, I can get to Spokane today in 7 hours. Never you mind that I can drive to Spokane, even in the slightly bad weather, in 4, maybe 4 1/2 hours. Let's say I wanted to get to San Francisco. Well, I can catch a train... Tomorrow! Twenty-two hours it would take by the way - to get to Emeryville. Hey, if I want to get to Phoenix, fuck me, the schedule cannot pull anything up.
I'm sure that the governments are heavily subsidizing the European rail systems, but why shouldn't we expect the same? Instead, we subsidize oil companies with billions of dollars and wars, even when they're making record profits, so that spoiled Americans can drive their ginormous Escalades, continuing to poison the air and radically change the climate, and not have to share space with a stranger.
Man, it's easy for me to hate my own country sometimes.
Rocktober song of the day: Rid Of Me by PJ Harvey.
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9 comments:
I hear the taxis on McSpiclish get you places faster than the trains in Seattle. Maybe ya oughta move back in with your family there on McSpiclish.
Aye, it only takes 1.2 seconds ta get across McSpiclish in a taxi. But the ting is, you gotta push it yourself...
They're li'l matchbox taxis for fuck's sake.
Hey - is next month gonna be Novrockber or Rockmember?
Last year was Slowvember, for lack of anything better. I like it when they rhyme
Hear hear.
By the by, kudos on the PJ Harvey.
Slowvenmber is perfect. Just like you, Bill.
As for transit, preach on man. LA is the finest example of corporate greed leading to public misfortune... with the removal of all public transportation at the turn of the whenever because tire companies wanted to turn a profit (pun intended).
Then again, if you take public transportation in LA, you are poor. And no one wants to seem poor, do we now. So instead, everyone buys cars that are WAY too huge, puts giant shiney rims on them, and finances the crap out of everything... just to sit in traffic going 5 mph.
Then again, there is something reassuring riding around in essentially and urban tank. Then again that might just seem attractive to me as I putter around on my motorbike dodging yuppie assholes.
KC...didn't your infinity or lexus just break down??
xxoo
I like "Rockmember". It reminds me of my penis.
and yours too. ; )
Beth, "break down" is not quite the word for it. The engine went grindingly, horribly, left-on-the-side-of-the-road bad on the Grapevine, and I was not about to put the money into it to get it fixed. So I dumped it on a mechanic and walked away.
And before you reply, I do get the irony of me screaming at yuppie assholes and me just getting out of a Lexus... but that is not the point, now is it? Now that I am a full-time motorcyclist (riding my classic Triumph Bonneville, BTW) I am one of the common folk again, and thereby allowed to yell obscenities.
Well, that and the fact that in the 4 times I have driven my bike in LA so far, I have almost been hit twice. And every time, it was some dickhead driving his overpriced Mercedes and not paying attention. That gives me a right too.
So, will all this stop me from buying another luxury car? No. Will having a luxury car stop me from calling unattentive drivers talking on the cellphones while driving too fast "yuppie assholes"? Double-no.
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