I had a Dream.
No, not Like Martin Luther King Jr's. Dream.
I had a Dream.
The dream is how to deal with the problems caused by GM, and the NCL (national City Lines) plot to destroy streetcars.
Go here: And find out ALL about GM's CRUSADE against Public Transit in the 1930's through 1950's. I am not re-inventing the wheel. None of this is new.GM is guilty. They destroyed much of the pre-existing streetcar systems in our country, to gain market, and replace it all with BUSses.
The SOLUTION? THIS is what came to me in that dream!!!
Give GM the Ca$H it wants, with a HUGE CATCH!!!!
Very Simple.GM gets the $25 billion it wants. And America can also UNDO a huge injustice done to our cities.
GM (and the other Auto companies get the $$$). America gets to tell them where to invest the ca$h. IN TRANSPORTATION infrastructures.
YES. Give the Auto Companies the money they need.
But they must know that their days of building carbon-destroying individual mass transit machines is over.GM, and the perhaps million and a half jobs that exist behind/under them (parts suppliers, other companies, etc) are VERY VERY important to our country, and will be saved.
However, the auto companies will be required to do massive retooling, and redesign, to start new light rail (formerly called streetcars) transit lines in quantity for rebuilding our country.
The hint to the auto companies is:
We will give you cash to get re-tooled, and re-focused, and you get to keep your valued employees occupied in an what will become a new growth industry in our country.
Look HERE for a previous post on how I think an infrastructure project can also be a ENERGY saving project:
Essentially:
Every single national Highway (NJ Turnpike, Route 95, etc), will have both a freight and a passenger Rail line constructed on either the median, or the sides of the highway, that will serve trucks going down that Highway.
Example:
in NJ the NJ Turnpike is a continuation of Route 95 (Florida to the Northeast).
In NJ, trucks would get on this special rail line, park their truck on a rail car, and simply ride to the end of the turnpike, where they would get off.
Background
In driving to a job in Philadelphia on a Sunday night, I once counted over 500 tractor trailers on Route 95 going south at about 9:PM.
The amount of gas, and energy that would be saved by this series of rail lines would help our carbon footprint, help re-build our country, and help reduce our dependency on trucks in delivering most stuff in the country.
-------11-20-08 update
This is a GREAT start BUT... we also need to HELP P*U*S*H* the car companies into the abyss, by FORCING them to accept pre-packaged (pre-negotiated) bankruptcies as a condition of getting CA$H.
We COULD also make trimming (thinning) the corporate Jet fleets a necessity, perhaps down from 5-10 planes to one?? and one shared (by all three) backup plane?
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