Of course, the United States is larger -- nobody's arguing that.

But the sad excuses for most "public transportation" even in medium sized
cities is -- well, sad.

I live in Chicago where there is forunately a very good public
transporation system.  It's unfortunate that I require a care to work in
the suburbs -- there is no good way for me to get to my place of employment
(without wasting 2-3 hours changing trains, etc., not to mention getting
from the teeny train station in this little town to my actual workplace)
without a car.

Within Chicago though, I rarely drive.  We have the el, and bus routes
everywhere.  It's not nearly as good as, say, Berlin's public
transportation, but it's better than most cities in the country.

What hacks me is that a place like Houston COULD have public
transportation, but probably doesn't have much of anything.  I will admit I
know very little about Houston (or anything in Texas for that matter except
that our president was King of it for a while) or Dallas, neither of which
apeal to me, from what I've heard, read, and watched on television and
elsewhere as anything interesting to me.  So, maybe I'm wrong -- maybe
there's some major monorail system in Houston everyone uses to go shopping
from suburb to suburb.  But I doubt it.

In terms of longer distances, our public transportation here is the
airplane.  That *can* be cost- and fuel-efficient as long as the planes are
full.

They've been talking about high-speed trains in the US for years, but the
government has a hard time giving up money for such things.  We'd much
rather spend our money on vast amounts of weaponry.

John Testa
SLPS Homewood
708-647-4346
[log in to unmask]



                      "Denys Beauchemin"
                      <denysnospamwanted@hous        To:       <[log in to unmask]>
                      ton.rr.com>                    cc:       <[log in to unmask]>
                                                     Subject:  RE: [HP3000-L] Blatant disrespect for the international community
                      11/03/2004 09:03 AM
                      Please respond to denys






Most cities in Europe are packed, you cannot park anywhere.  When I used
to go to Hamburg (3-4 times a year for many years), I used the buses and
the U-Bahn.  If you drove, you could never find parking anywhere.  I
have been to many places in Europe and the problem was the same
everywhere.  I think the worst one was Athens.  A 10 mile ride could
turn into a 2 hours odyssey culminating with a 30 minute quest for a
parking space usually in the strangest locations and never near where
you needed to be.

The city of Houston is bigger than most European countries and many
small East Coast states.   The only way to get around is by car and
there is plenty of parking everywhere.

If you look at NYC, you will find pretty much the same situation.  You
will also find that most people move around by cab, bus, subway.  In my
home town of Montreal, you can live, work, shop and lead a busy life
without even going outdoor.  The whole city is interconnected
underground and the Metro is extensive.

But I think the biggest difference between Europe and North America, is
the distance.  Europeans have no concept.  Texas, a single state, is
bigger than France and Germany combined.

In a post-9/11 world, who wants to go through the humiliation at the
airports to fly from Houston to Dallas?  In the 3-hour drive from
Houston to Dallas, one would have gone through 12.3 countries in Europe
and still not have found anywhere to park.


Denys

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