Daily Score Blog

Here's an interesting argument, regarding transit service in Vancouver, BC:

The planned SkyTrain subway spur along Broadway and out to the University of British Columbia campus will cost taxpayers 15 times what it would take to build a tram line along the same route.

In fact, for the $2.8 billion cost of the single 12 kilometre SkyTrain tube from Commercial Drive to UBC, Vancouver could build 175 km of tram lines crisscrossing the city and beyond.

That doesn't make the subway sound very good.  But I'm sure the subway proponents have solid arguments in their favor as well.

For whatever reason, I'm always fascinated by comparisons of different transit modes -- bus vs. train vs. streetcar vs. you name it.  There are such diverging views on costs, on benefits to neighborhoods, on greenhouse gas impacts, on energy independence, and so forth.  The issues are truly crucial -- and given the mammoth cost of transportation investments, as well as their permanence, it's vitally important to get them right.

But at the same time, I also find arguments over transit modes strangely dispiriting.  They always seem to split apart natural allies.  And they can get so personal and vituperative, with advocates of different modes not just arguing passionately about their beliefs, but sometimes even accusing others of arguing in bad faith.

That's not at all what's happening in this article -- which is defintely worth a read.  Still, I hope that the fight over subway vs. tram doesn't degenerate into a shouting match among transit advocates that diverts attention from the real threats to their common goals -- such as a massive proposed expansion in Greater Vancouver's highway system.

[Photo courtesy of Flickr user kootenayvolcano.  It's a SkyTrain station, by the way.]

In Gene Wilder's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Willy Wonka reveals a machine that can break down a chocolate bar into tiny particles and transmit it over the airwaves, right to the consumer's television set. Forty years ago, that was science fiction...well, it still is science fiction, but the concept of shopping from the comfort of our own home is ever so real, thanks to the microchip.

Without microchips, computers, Internet, email, cell phones, GPS, programmable thermostats, and all the other electronic devices many of us use everyday would not exist.

Amazon, iTunes and just about every other popular retailer can be found on the Internet, inviting us to buy what we need (and tempting us to buy what we don't need) without leaving home...without having to get into our car and drive to the store. Reducing trips cuts our gasoline bills as well as the greenhouse pollution our cars emit.

Sightline's new book, Seven Wonders for a Cool Planet celebrates inventions like the microchip that have the potential to reduce our impacts upon the planet and make the world a safer, healthier place to live today -- and in 5, 15, or 30 years:

 ...the energy costs per book sold are sixteen times greater for a conventional bookstore than for Amazon. Shipping ten pounds of packages by overnight air--the most energy-intensive delivery mode-still uses 40 percent less fuel than driving round-trip to the mall. (It's a different story, of course, if you walk or bike to the bookstore.) Ground shipping by truck is even better, using one-tenth the energy of driving yourself.

The Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development figures that a broader application of internet retailing could eliminate the need for 12.5 percent of retail building space. This is the same as 1.5 billion square feet of commercial space, saving hundreds of millions of dollars in heating costs.

 
Photo: flickr.com. Claytron

One in three Northwest households makes less than $35,000 a year, before taxes. That's about 1.6 million households. Now, $35k ain't bad -- and it's far, far above the federal poverty line, even for a family of four -- but most households below that level feel $4 gasoline as a major blow. And especially when fuel costs are sending the price of everything from cat food to a handyman visit into double-digit inflation.

One in four Northwest households makes less than $25,000 a year, before taxes. That's more than 1 million households.

One in eight Northwest households makes less than $15,000 a year, before taxes. That's more than a half-million households.

No further comment for now.

Figures are for Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, using 2006 data (the most recent available) from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey. (By state, the percentage of households making less than $35k is WA: 32%; OR: 38%; ID: 40%.) Comparable figures for British Columbia are not available.