Thanks for proving my point. Only backwards people would use something so simpleminded at “freezing at zero and boiling at 100.” Stuff like that stifles innovation. Do you realy want to be like those backward 95%? Well, you can take that bike (or is it Peugeot?) to Canada, EH? Maybe you are one of those “Metric-anos Sin Fronteras” types. I exposed these kinds of people here:

http://isophorone.blogspot.com/2007/08/sarkozy-to-dump-metric-system.html

I am optimistic that the rest of the world will put the month ahead of the day, also. For all I know you are driving on the wrong side of the street, also!

I’m sure you would find Canada a very welcoming part of the “international society.” If you hurry, you can ride your bike there before the weather turns.

In the meantime, I think there are far better arguments to be made regarding mass transit than an appeal for us to be more like those sensible and elegant socialists in Europe. Surely you can think of better reasons for having rail from Dulles to downtown DC than simply that DC needs to be a “WORLD CITY.”

While on the subject of being stupidly stubborn, the US is the only country I know that puts Month ahead of Day and Year when writing dates. This has caused problems to a couple of friends who got their visa dates screwed up. When it comes to travel, it’s a puzzlement to me why the 24 hr system isn’t used for airline tickets. You’d never show up at 7:30 am if the flight was scheduled for 19:30! Another pet peeve: Fahrenheit vs Celcius! Freezing at zero, boiling at 100! What could be easier? Oh well, one day we’ll join the international society in these respects.

Europeans pay much higher taxes than we do and tend to live in more densely crowded cities. The average poor person in the U.S. has more living space (and is more likely to own a car) than a middle class European.

So do you live in a big city and take only public transit? I am in Fairfax, and do walk to a bus to take the Metro most days. (I joke that not driving is like having a promotion.)

Let’s face it, During WWII DC had a population of about 800,000. Now it is just under 600,000 (and for awhile it was closer to 500,000). Families with kids, and especially those concerned about (overpriced and underperforming) schools, are just not going to move into the place. The same goes for a lot of big cities. I submit to you that a school voucher system would actually help stop suburban sprawl!

Anyway, these Danes, Swedes, Germans, British, and Singaporeans are really not so advanced. All of these countries, in fact, are so backwards that they STILL USE THE METRIC SYSTEM. Do you really want to be like them? The invention of this stuff is what got Louis XVI’s head cut off. Why do you think France’s new president Sarkozy keeps visiting the U.S.? He wants to get rid of it too! I wote extensively on my blog about this very subject.

Local Republicans think that the magic bullet for our transportation needs is **to use local tax dollars and build our own roads*** that will unendingly require annual operating subsidies.

Is there a difference in the flawed thinking on both sides? Is it possible for to look at things objectively, factually and without editorial nonsense? When I see some sensible discussion without the uncessary fingerpointing it will be worth consideration.

That said, transportation should not be local government responsibility due to the impact on debt capacity that freezes all other expansion - police stations, fire stations the primary missions of local government.

I think the opposition to rail-to-Dulles can make their case better by saying that one mile of rail = X miles of road (as in lanes on I-66).

Putting 1000s of new homes in Prince William County with Rt. 28 as the only path north to 66 has had HUGE impact on traffic since I moved to MP in 2000.

It should not take me an hour in the morning to drive 6 miles to Centreville. I’m just thankful I have the freedom to work from home now. No idea how other folks tolerate it.

Insisting that local government rein in development and shift the costs of increasing road capacity to these developments is the answer.

So we are left with a few choices: 1) cut significant amounts from other budget line items to fund transpo (no one in either party has the balls to do this); 2) abandon Dulles rail and funnel that money into the general transpo budget (has about a .1% chance of happening); 3) make the pie bigger thru tax increases (impossible with the current House); 4) ignore the problem (most downstaters do this); 5) change the funding formula to favor NOVA (will help but in the end won’t transfer anything significant upstate); or 6) some combination of the above.

Until we zero out the budget, start from scratch with a new baseline consistent with identified priorities, and start to think more strategically instead of focusing on gotcha politics or the next election, nothing positive for transp will ever get done.

The problem is we don’t really know how big the pie is because we are working off a budget that hasn’t been rebaselined since the early ’70s. We need to work together on this instead of throwing bombs at the other side.