Public transit on Long Island is neither convenient, safe nor reliable.

Julia, you're kidding, right? And yet you're willing to spend 45 minutes to an hour each day in the most dangerous mode of travel yet invented. In 2005 there were 248 people killed in traffic crashes (.xls) in Nassau and Suffolk County. How many people do you think were killed on the "unsafe" Long Island Rail Road and Nassau and Suffolk bus systems? I would be absolutely shocked if it was more than 5 total.

Every time you get behind the wheel, you're putting yourself and others at risk. If you don't like creepy people on the train or bus, that's fine. I have absolutely no problem with that, but be aware that you're willing to take quite a risk to be able to avoid them.

I miss the days in college where I could walk to class and work, but I currently live 45mn-1 hr driving distance from my job, and biking or walking is clearly out of the question.

I can sympathise with that. I enjoyed the college campus lifestyle and made a point of living in the city to retain the walking aspect of life. You said you didn't move there for the public transit, so why did you move there?

My car based on year, make, model, transmission and miles traveled per year emits approximately 1.5 tons of C02. ... My carbon footprint is assuaged by other efforts on my part, thanks.

What other efforts could you possibly be making to counteract 1.5 tons of CO2? I'm thinking things like changing lightbulbs? Calling catalog companies and asking them to cancel subscriptions? While good, these types of typical household items really don't go very far to addressing the problems we all face. As the Sierra Club notes, the single most important choice we all make as consumers is the type of car we buy. At this point I'm feeling pretty good about not buying a car at all.

Not bad for a city that has no metro service at night...

Public transit on Long Island is neither convenient, safe nor reliable.

So what did you move there for?

You're placing the onus on the individual and not the car makers, the politicians and people who can effect the problem on a mass scale.

Except that so many individual drivers supported and will probably re-elect their assemblymembers who refused to vote for congestion pricing.

Hagrin, Larry's argument is about driving (which is fairly demanding work) vs. transit (which can be relaxing). 45 minutes unpaid transit riding is bad enough, but I agree with Larry that 45 minutes unpaid driving is exploitive.

My statement was concerning "unwanted looks and muttered comments in foreign languages from creepy people on public transit." Note, I didn't say all people on public transit were creepy. If someone is oggling me and saying strange things to/at me under his breath and generally making an innocent fellow transit-goer feel uncomfortable and threatened, that makes him scary and creepy in my opinion, and is enough to keep me and lots of people away from mass transit.

Wow, pretty poor intrinsic and extrinsic reasoning there Larry considering 1) you don't know if the person is being compensated more for working that job further away than a job closer to home and 2) you don't know if the work that they truly enjoy doing is even available closer to home. However, your analysis doesn't surprise me considering the rest of the parallels and conclusions you made in this post.

As a commuter into and out of NYC who has his "bike pass" for the LIRR and who has biked 20 miles each way from LIRR stop to my intended destination, I can say from experience that mass transportation is outdated, doesn't meet the population needs (ever try getting home from Shea?), is dangerous (see platform and gap deaths), time inefficient and exposes you to dangers and weather elements in a more drastic manner (I'll take my safety tested car getting slammed into as opposed to being clipped on my bike or ruining dress shoes walking through floods).

These "Camelot" views on mass transportation, green technology and solving City congestion just don't match up to the reality. You're making the mistake that too many people make -
You're placing the onus on the individual and not the car makers, the politicians and people who can effect the problem on a mass scale.

Instead, you make the laughable argument of "To begin with, congestion pricing was considered completely untenable from a political point of view" which basically translates into "I won't do the right thing which is hard because I want to get re-elected". Cry me a river for the politicians.

This entire post makes me think of that classic Seinfeld quote - "That's all the City needs - more, slow moving wicker vehicles".

I believe that we have to reduce the world's per capita co2 emissions to 1.2 tons per person by 2050 to avoid the worst effects of global warming, so there is no way to "assuage" the 5 tons that your car emits each year.

I know it is impossible to live without a car in much of Long Island, but if we want a livable world, we need to 1)make the political effort to start rebuilding Long Island so it is more pedestrian- and transit-oriented 2)make the personal effort to commute by public transit, even if it is a less convenient than driving.

Personal attacks breed personal attacks. When you talk about creepy people on the subway, you have to expect a response in kind. However, it makes me cringe when people call me "Charlie," so we are now even on the "ouch" factor, and we can drop the personal attacks in the future.

As for me, I like to take the subways to avoid the truly creepy people from Long Island.

A drive of 45 minutes to an hour each way to work is 1 1/2 to two-hours of unpaid slavery per day. I've been willing to accept a lot in my life to live in a place where this can be avoided.

unwanted looks and muttered comments in foreign languages from creepy people on public transit.

I'll take unwanted looks and muttered comments any day over the deadly games of chicken that creepy people play in their cars. Unfortunately, I still have to deal with the drivers when I'm crossing the street.

car ownership is freedom from bus and train schedules and unwanted looks and muttered comments in foreign languages from creepy people on public transit.

God bless America.

Clinging to my car in Long Island,
Julia

This is a great plan for Paris --
but are all the other variables relevant for NYC?
Would love to see it here.