The summer of our discontent
As the price of gasoline in the U.S. pulls itself up to $4/gallon, and the realities of our poor housing, transport, and investment choices set in, I’m glad to see that we as a nation are slowly coming around. Mass transit ridership is up, the Hummer and its ilk are dying a much-welcomed death, and even the shill of the auto industry has made predictions about a decline in travel.
If one was, say, a presidential candidate, now might be a good time to make note of the unreality of our previous way of life, note the positives that higher gas prices can bring, and propose setting a floor on gas prices.
On second thought, one might be wise to keep this plan hush-hush until after one has obtained the office. Selling this plan while campaigning presupposes an electorate with enough brains to realize the benefits.
But what the government can’t, or won’t, accomplish, the market will, for better or for worse. I think the ratchet effect is in full swing. $3/gallon gas, we hardly knew you: $4 is here to stay. It’s just a shame that we couldn’t have realized this earlier, skimmed a bit off the top, and done a better job of preparing ourselves for a different way of life.
Mediocrity on parade
If this report is an honest appraisal of Washngton’s state of thought on the nation’s gasoline “crisis,” then we’re truly fucked. I have not heard anything more depressing than these stuffed shirts trying to devise increasingly absurd ways to keep our fantasy of a happy motoring country afloat.
Practiced outrage at this issue is a safe bet politically, no doubt. But whether it’s the administration looking to drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), presidential candidates calling for a gas tax holiday, or a windfall tax on oil company profits, it’s apparent that no one has stopped to think that the underlying premise – that we must keep our national fleet moving at any cost – is wrong.
The “one million” barrels of additional production that ANWR would bring to the table is, relatively speaking, a drop in the bucket. The U.S. imports 10 million barrels of oil a day, and produces another 5 million or so domestically. In a report authored three years ago, the Energy Department said that opening ANWR to drilling “might reduce world oil prices by as much as 30 to 50 cents per barrel” (see “Results”). This corresponds to a pennies on the gallon decrease, which is hardly the kind of relief touted by the administration. The report goes on to say that the impact of the influx of ANWR oil could easily by negated by an equal decrease in OPEC exports, so as to keep the amount of available oil static.
I’m also disappointed by Clinton’s echoing of McCain’s call for a gas tax holiday, for it shows that her intentions with respect to the environment are not as pure as I had hoped. Obama’s characterization of the candidates’ tax holiday as an idea “designed to get them through an election” is spot-on.
(Update: The Freakonomics blog issues a challenge to find an economist who thinks the tax holiday is a good idea. I await the results with bated breath. The unsurprising results are in.)
McCain’s plan would do nothing to replace the lost revenue to the Federal Highway Trust Fund, causing it to miss out on about $10 billion in revenue. Clinton, on the other hand, proposes to replace this lost revenue with a windfall profits tax, which, having been repealed in 1988, has not seen the light of day since. While this tax would put Republicans in the hot seat – does one pander to one’s NASCAR base (votes), or does one kowtow to the oil industry (money) – I doubt such a measure would pass.
Though their ways may differ, Republicans and Democrats alike offer nothing new. And in such a tightly contested Democratic primary, I think it’s safe to assume that any ideas offered up will not stray far from what is considered safe politics.
Surely nothing will be heard on efforts to improve our national passenger rail system, better urban mass transit, and curbing sprawl. Instead, the desperate clinging to the status quo of “more houses/more roads/more cars”, as shown by recent talk of bailout of the adjustable-rate mortgage market, ensures that this election season, though notable for the makeup of the ballot, will remain mired in tired ways of thinking which only serve to hasten our country’s decline into a muddling pool of shit.
A better schedule getter
Inspired by Nathan’s self-motivated improvement to the Port Authority’s Trip Planner, I decided to task myself with my own small project that would eliminate the need to visit the Byzantine structure that is the Port Authority website. I hope you like it.
Whoops, wrong project.
Actually, my goals were much more modest. As one who is not altogether trusting of the times given via the online scheduling tools, I prefer to rely on the paper, or “hand schedules,” that the Port Authority distributes.
However, carrying more than three paper schedules at a time leaves one open to the valid assumption by others that you are a nut who hordes bus schedules like Elliot Spitzer hordes prostitutes. Believe me, I’ve seen the type in every city we’ve been to.
So I prefer to do my hoarding electronically, via PDF. Since my laptop is never far from my person, it’s an ideal situation. Throw Spotlight into the mix, and I can summon up any bus schedule at will, and can out-crazy the best of the crazies.
Well, almost. See, the process of getting the schedules and keeping them updated is the not fun part. There are about 11 bus routes that I use with varying degrees of regularity, and I despise having to remember if I grabbed the newest schedule and, if I didn’t, visiting the Port Authority’s website to get a new one. Too much thinking and too many clicks.
Enter the Mac, its Unix underpinnings, and the beauty that is shell scripting.
I spent some time tonight polishing a project I had started a couple of months ago – a command-line schedule retriever. It uses wget and a lot of pipes and output redirection to download and manage the latest Port Authority schedules. It’s not pretty (although it does have a cool ASCII progress bar), but if you are a CLI ninja, it beats the alternative.
However, if you didn’t understand that last paragraph, it’s probably not for you.
My experience with releasing software that doesn’t run within a web browser is somewhat limited, so your mileage may vary, but I welcome you to download it and give it a shot.
Update: Also see the simplified Port Authority Hand Schedule retriever for quick access to PDF schedules through your browser.
Getting in the way
Leave it to Allegheny County to muck up the elegant Flexcar process.
From the Flexcar website:
The Allegheny County Council has enacted a $2 per day Rental Vehicle Tax to help fund mass transit programs. The tax code states that any establishment that rents motor vehicles without a driver for less than a thirty day period must comply with the provisions of the law and charge the new tax to its respective customers.
The Allegheny County Treasurer has informed Flexcar that we must begin to collect the Rental Vehicle Tax from members starting January 1, 2008. You will see this tax reflected on invoices for any January Flexcar charges. The rate of tax assessment shall be $2 per day, or any part of a day, on which a Rental Vehicle is rented within Allegheny County.
Flexcar apologizes for any burden this may cause. Flexcar intends to address the issue by educating Allegheny County on the community benefits of car-sharing and key differences from traditional car rental. We are prepared to work with the County on a differing interpretation of the current law or to achieve a fix that will more specifically exempt car-sharing from the Rental Vehicle Tax.
While I do support these unfortunate taxes as a way to keep the buses rolling, I hope something can be done to lessen the burden for Flexcar users, whose rentals are measured in hours, not days.
I figure that writing the county council and county overlord is a good start.
Take two
The local transit system is having problems with their website.
The Port Authority of Allegheny County’s Web site is down because of a server problem, and technicians hope to have the matter resolved today.
Fortunately, there are better alternatives.
