Will rising fuel costs spur public transit?

I don't see mass transit catching on in a big way with the middle class until something can be done about segregating them from the low-income people who currently make up most of the riders. At least speaking for Boston, nobody respectable wants to ride the MBTA (the mass transit system around here) because you have to sit next to mumbling old drunk men with paper bags sticking out of their pockets (holding a half empty bottle of wine), hooded teenagers out looking for trouble, and other riff-raff.

What they ought to do is have "yuppie" cars on the trains. You have to pay an extra dollar to get on them and have to be dressed at least business casual. These cars need to be upscale, with advertisements for Grey Goose vodka instead of Colt 45 Malt Liquor and for banks instead of paycheck loan outlets.

What I'm saying here is that the yuppies and the upscale business set need to have separate cars in which they can read their Wall Street Journal and maybe sip a plastic glass of wine (bought at the platform for $6 a pop) without having to switch their wallets from their back pockets to their front pockets and mess up their hair and loosen their ties to make the other riders think they are just as disheveled and hopeless as they are.

What we need are PREMIUM cars on our public transportation trains. Cars with no graffiti, empty fast food wrappers on the floor and no jarring public service announcements on the loudspeakers. Instead, pipe in some Chopin or Mozart music and have a pleasant "dinging" noise when the train reaches a station with a pleasant female voice announcing the name of the station.

This used to be done on the NYC subways back in the early days. During morning rush hour, the last cars of the train were “reserved” for Wall Streeters.

Of course, this won’t work today. A more likely solution are large vans or jitneys.

Right now, public transportation is seen as low class by many. That’ll change.

You too. Take care.

I don't mind waiting outside for the bus when the wind chill is below zero.

I guess some folks do, though.

:-)

When the city bus that goes past my house was cancelled 20 years ago I bought a nice, big car. Got to say the bus was cheap and convenient. The bus was just restored but it doesn’t go all the way into town but just to the new mall. This would be fine for those who don’t need to go to work but merely to go shopping. If public transportation is to become popular it must first be provided.

We live far too spread apart to make public transport a good option for most of us.

No problem. Libs want to "fix" that problem for you too.

What we need are PREMIUM cars on our public transportation trains. Cars with no graffiti, empty fast food wrappers on the floor and no jarring public service announcements on the loudspeakers. Instead, pipe in some Chopin or Mozart music and have a pleasant "dinging" noise when the train reaches a station with a pleasant female voice announcing the name of the station.

Hey, I'd certainly pay extra for such plush appointments. It'd be a huge improvement over my last public transport experience (New Orleans, 1979). Back then, the public buses were full of 3-inch-long cockroaches (that can fly, by the way..), orange peel - and women who used empty beer cans as hair rollers.