With the problems we’ve known about for decades — energy dependence, environmental issues, aging infrastructure, traffic congestion — we could/should have engaged in a massive national effort to provide an integrated mass transportation system.

After the fall of the Soviet Union (remember the “Peace Dividend?) I began sending a basic plan to connect villages to towns, towns to cities, coast to coast combining road, rail and air so anyone could travel anywhere in the continental U.S.  Included were drawings and suggestions for funding.

It would, where possible, use the median of the Interstate Highway System for monorail passenger lines, both interurban and between major cities and existing airports, rail and bus depots.

A combination of federal, state and private companies would work under a centrally planned and coordinated commission using the auto and aircraft industries to construct standardized equipment (as was done in WW2) and area construction firms across the country.

The advantages: decrease dependence on foreign oil, cut traffic fatalities (over 40,000 per year) reduce emissions, provide for emergency evacuation (think Katrina) create jobs in America by Americans for Americans — now and for generations to come.

Each presidential candidate since George Herman Walker Bush has been sent this idea. None responded in any way other than a thank you form letter. Congress — ditto.

my exurb does not have bus service. i live within walking distance of my job though. or i bike on nice days.

I would take public transportation except for the fact that the scheduling and routing is so outrageous where I live. In this small urban county public transportation is low on the scale of priorities even with the price of oil rising. A 12 minute 6 mile drive turns into a 45 minute bus ride assuming that the connection is even on time. For those of us who need to work that’s out of the question.

I live in the northern part of King County, WA, where Seattle is located.  Out in the unincorporated areas of the county, if you want to take a bus that goes to downtown Seattle, hop aboard!  Yeah, it’s slow, but it’s faster than trying to go the six miles from my house to where my husband works; if he tried to take the bus it would take about 3 hours.  Same thing when I was in school about two miles farther away…and we aren’t talking some area not served by electricity or roads; I live about six miles from the main Microsoft campus!

Too many of the bus routes here focus on moving people long distances and forget the many short trips people take.  If you live close to your job, you’re in luck, but that’s not the case for anyone who lives outside Seattle proper.

I dislike the snarky tone of “I like my car way too much.” I drive to work because public transportation where I live is inconvenient. Buses run late or not at all, on routes whose logic escapes me. And even at $3.50 a gallon, it STILL COSTS LESS to drive than to take the bus. And frankly, even when gas hits $5.00, I’ll still drive to work because I often need to go somewhere before or after work where the bus doesn’t go.

My point is simply this: With the exception of major U.S. cities, American towns have been built on the idea that people will drive. To really and truly wean ourselves off excessive use of energy would require a wholesale revision of the American infrastructure. Unless and until there are serious changes in incentives, I don’t see that happening.