Business

Positive effects of rising gas prices
by Zuzana Fabcinova

We have noticed massive growth of gas prices recently. Not very positive fact for family budgets, of course, but every cloud has a silver lining. High gas prices are changing people's attitude to public transportation. In a positive way. Many of those, who weren't able to imagine themselves traveling to work by any other mean of transport than their own beloved car a pair of months ago, are now changing their minds and long time habits. As gas prices rise quickly, people start to compare pros and cons of public transport and revalue their approach, realizing that it is far more economical not to drive a car. What a luck (and what a good way to profit) for transit agencies, I would think. Believe it or not, I would be wrong. It is almost incredible, but it causes them huge problems.Buses, trains and subways are just getting overcrowded because they were not ready for mass rise of passengers. Transit agencies are forced to take emergency measures. Buying new vehicles, hiring and training plenty of new drivers, removing seats to allow more people to cram in, lengthening rush-hour trains, creating special “bus lanes” to avoid traffic jams and subsequent delays. (By the way, I have heard that there are employees called “pushers” in Japanese subways, who literally push people into carriages during rush-hours to allow doors close. Not a bad idea for all transit agencies.) All these expenditures may be transformed into higher fares. Hopefully, more expensive tickets won't affect people's thinking, because it is definitely more environmentally friendly to take a bus than to drive a car.

related story: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080603/ap_on_re_us/gas_prices_mass_transit;_ylt=Apl0pfdw0gghPXv36HjVI62s0NUE

by Zuzana Fabcinova for PocketNews (http://pocketnews.tv)

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Edited by: Maria Zitnanska

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posted by Blog TechSource @ 1:03 AM