Classical Values :: This used to be a wonderful country

June 12, 2008

This used to be a wonderful country

"This country is starting to feel second-rate to me, and it's not a pleasant feeling."

So says David Post, a Philadelphian who (like me) is horrified by the state of public transportation. (Via Glenn Reynolds.)

The worst part of this entire experience was that nobody really seems to give a damn, or be in the least surprised, about complete breakdowns like these.

Well, what about the complete breakdown that would be suffered by giving a damn? If you give a damn, it will only lead to a hopeless temper tantrum, and feelings of impotent rage. * Getting all bent out of shape about problems which cannot be solved is a good way to die young.

Today I was stuck in awful traffic because I couldn't take public transportation, and the reason I couldn't take public transportation is that the SEPTA parking lot was full. The only highway that connects the area where I live to Philadelphia is the notorious Schuylkill "Expressway" and it was obsolete when built in the 1950s, and too small for traffic ever since.

Constructed over a period of ten years from 1949 to 1959, a large portion of the expressway predates the 1956 introduction of Interstate Highway System; many of these portions were not built to contemporary standards.[3] The rugged terrain and limited riverfront space covered by the route has largely stymied later attempts to upgrade or widen the highway, despite the road being highly over-capacity; it has become notorious for its chronic congestion.[4] It is the busiest road in Philadelphia, as well as in the entire commonwealth of Pennsylvania.[5]

Add to that the maddeningly usual road work (it is ALWAYS under construction) and traffic slows to a crawl if you're lucky.

I'd complain more often, but again, that would mean I'd give a damn, and where do you go with that? Widening highways like the Schuykill has gone from nearly impossible to completely out of the question. Thanks to global warming, and growing bureaucratic hostility to cars, there's now a sanctimonious, quasi-religious reason to say no, and they can almost feel smug about the deterioration. It is, after all, the fault of all those greedy people in their cars!

Post continues:

Really, our public infrastructure - our public life - is in the process of deteriorating, and we don't seem to be able to summon up the energy required to do anything about it. Maybe I'm wrong about that. I work in Philadelphia, probably the world capital of "what can you do? it's just the way it is" - the public transportation system in Philadelphia is a grotesque monstrosity, filthy, noisy, and monumentally unpleasant, and the general feeling seems to be that it would be a miracle if we could find some way just to keep it from getting any worse - so maybe I'm oversensitive to the problem. But if I had had a guest with me from overseas on this trip, I would have been appalled and embarrassed by the state of decay into which we, collectively, have allowed things to fall.

What shocks me is to go to other countries like Japan and Mexico and see functional public transportation systems. (You don't have to go that far, really; California, where I lived for 28 years, makes the East Coast look broken-down and medieval.)

It would be one thing for the transportation system to be a "grotesque monstrosity, filthy, noisy, and monumentally unpleasant" if they just left it at that. But what really ticks me off is to be constantly hounded about how I should use public transportation! Today I couldn't use it, as there was nowhere to park, and if you can't park, you can't use it. Naturally, more and more people are trying to park because more and more people are trying to use it to avoid using gas. Naturally, this will cause more and more breakdowns in the chronically broken system. But that won't stop the local moralists from sounding their endless whine about how "not enough people use public transportation," and how "we need to keep all these cars out of Philadelphia."

Grrrrrr..... (Nah, I should shut up. What good does it do to growl at those who hound you?)

There's some comfort for guys my age in at least being able to remember when things sort of worked.

* Giving a damn can also lead to gratuitous scoldings like this comment:

"This country is starting to feel second-rate to me, and it's not a pleasant feeling"

With all due respect - if you don't have anything worthwhile to blof about in this forum, then restrain yourself until you do.

Your post on this topic is a complete waste of time and space, inappropriate, and not worthy of the forum. Eugene should remove it, and give you guidlines as to what to blog about here.

Hmmm....

Personally, I don't think that Post's post violated Eugene's guidlines.

But in any case, I can blof about anything I want, because I set my own guidlines!

UPDATE (from the road): My thanks to Glenn Reynolds for the link, and welcome all!

Glenn also links this discussion of the deteriorating public transportation system, and I agree that the issue is not money; it's priorities.

posted by Eric on 06.12.08 at 09:09 PM

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Comments

Over on the other side of PA it is just as bad. I live in Pittsburgh, most livable city because we paid someone off. Over here they will repave a road with substandard product, then the water company will come by and dig up the road to lay new pipes, and replace the substandard product with worse product. Then the line painters come to paint over roadkill. Because the roads are made with substandard product the potholes are as deep and wide as an olympic sized swimming pool, occasionally you can see the cobble stones from ye olde days of yore. Of course if you drive from PA to Ohio you can tell when you've crossed the state line without a sign stating that you have done so.

John · June 12, 2008 09:25 PM

Please leave the Grrrrs to Coco.

dre · June 12, 2008 10:04 PM

For what it's worth, you should check out your local ordinances regarding private transportation to. We all know that the cities can find a way to lose money on mass transit even when their user base swells, but most people don't realize cities also make it impossible for private bus services to move in.

It's bad enough when they are bad at their jobs, but when they ban competition that could ease the work and provide more jobs... just stupid.

Allen · June 13, 2008 01:09 AM

This just happens to be about my most favvvorite subject to hate on.Mass transit is the biggest money sinkhole going.Self-aggrandizing government bureaucrats have been basically stealing money for years from the gas taxes that we pay for road infrastructure.The only mass transit system in this country that has ever come close to breaking even is the NY subway.All the rest have done nothing but lose money,so that even more of the money that should have gone for highways,roads,and bridges has been thrown away.

Privatize the whole stinking lot,and stop using gas tax money that is needed for road and highway improvements.Let mass transit make a profit,or go broke like it should have 40 years ago.

flicka47 · June 13, 2008 02:18 AM

Well when worse comes to worst, vote with your feet. This has been happening as people and businesses give up hope of reform and tire of the declining quality of living in single party machine cities and states.
As population declines, electoral votes shift elsewhere.

toad · June 13, 2008 03:15 AM

It's got to be a Philadelphia thing.

In the New Jersey-Connecticut-Rhode Island-Massachusetts neck of the woods, the infrastructure, at least as far as the highway system, has been getting steadily better over the twenty years I've been driving it.

Roads have been getting broader, inefficiencies in the toll systems have been removed (tolls going just one way on each bridge, completely eliminating the tolls on the Connecticut Turnpike) and the EZ Pass system makes the remaining tolls a breeze -- even if you don't have one the lines are shorter because most people do.

It used to be a nightmare to drive the length of I-95 along the Connecticut coast in summer time. It's now a pleasure. Similarly, the once beastly stop-and-go traffic that backed up for miles to get onto Cape Cod on a Friday evening in the Summer has been made infinitely better by a reworked system of exit ramps that went in just last year.

One could certainly point to the Big Dig's problems in Boston a few years back as a counter example, but the outrage over that was sufficient to play a major role in the Gubernatorial election that year, which sort of undercuts the notion that Americans are just learning to live with it -- at least in New England.

Clint · June 13, 2008 07:38 AM

One thing fersher - when any of the projects to fix the infrastructure are proposed they'll be tacked on to appropriations bills for something else with prevailing wage requirements and will have about as much oversite as a coed sleepover.

bandit · June 13, 2008 08:09 AM

A thought experiment: suppose an automaker came up with a solar-hybrid auto that, at least for short distances was zero emission and zero (fuel) cost. Assume it was plentiful and affordable. Assume it could be employed as a fleet vehicle for police, paratransit services. Even assume that poorer people could get receive some purchasing assistance.

Would the mass transit advocates go away? Would they lobby for a "Chevy Zero in every driveway"? Or would they redouble their efforts at pushing mass transit and preach about the moral corruption inherent in owning a Zero: "You don't know how truly evil you are! But I do!"?

Freedom is baad, freedom is baaaad!!!

Kenneth Greenlee · June 13, 2008 08:16 AM

Move.

Actually, Post is a whiner, and so are you.

What do you actually suppose public transport was really like 40 years ago? 60, 70, 100 years ago?

No A/C first of all. Think about that for about for a minute.

Does Post (or you) really think that things were that much better in the past? Whether it was Robert Moses bulldozing neighborhoods in NYC or what ever genius decided that I-95 would be a good idea, the history of this country is filled with ideas gone wrong and unintended consequences.

If you don't want that drive, move closer to where you work.

Eric Blair · June 13, 2008 08:59 AM

flicka47 makes a good point. There is an excellent, short book on the subject of congestion and mass transit The Road More Traveled by Staley and Balaker of Reason magazine. Mass transit is a money-hole except above population densities of 5,000/sq. mi. Thus, the London Underground is efficient in close, but costs more than it's worth the farther you get from the center. Politically, however, people who have mass transit removed from their locale feel robbed.

Allow privatisation of roads, HOT lane buy-ins, and private buses. And build more roads - it really does help.

Assistant Village Idiot · June 13, 2008 11:41 AM

Don;t worry, Fast Eddie Rendell has a plan to fix all.

First he gave out casino liscenses and promised to use the money to reduce property taxes (or maybe improve mass transit or maybe rebuild the roads)

Then he's going to sell the Turnpike to the Spanish to get money to pay somebody off (or maybe rebuild the roads or maybe improve mass transit)

AND he is going to place a toll on I-80, the only major road that runs through no major cities (= no voting opposition) to raise money to rebuild the roads.

I'm not sure why he doesn't just put a toll of the Sure-kill "Express" way since it is the most traveled road in the state. The toll could be used to upgrade that highway. Just think of all the money that would be paid by the people who actually use the road that would be upgraded

Mark E · June 13, 2008 09:17 PM