Ride an SUB not an SUV

Curtis L. Russell wrote:
On Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:05:41 GMT, Bill Baka wrote:

Even 2 people in a small car is a car pool, plus working at the same
place gives you a big edge. If the boss knows you ride together he also
knows if he pulls the overtime trick on one of us he will have to pay
overtime to the other for sticking around. At least that is how me and
my over sized friend did it.

No, he doesn't have to pay your friend overtime to 'stick around'. Not
in any state in the U.S.A. And I've worked with certified payrolls for
probably around a hundred different union jobs, and that was never
part of the work rules - which wouldn't likely apply to contract
employees.

Yes he did. Maybe not legally but my friend was high enough ranking that
he could say "Pay Bill too, or we are both going home.". After being
there 14 years they could not afford to **** Dan off. He was the only
one who knew were the bailing wire held the machines together.
Bill Baka

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

Dane Buson wrote:
In rec.bicycles.misc Bill Baka wrote:
Dane Buson wrote:

Hmm, I'll have to tell the van pool people at my work
whiter-than-white-collar job that they can't possibly be getting to
work that way. It must be teleportation. I'll have to ask them how
they do that.
Must be magic. I can't imagine 2 or more executive types stuck in a
car with each other for more than 2 minutes without an argument
breaking out.

I'm not sure if there are any executives involved. Programmers, QA
people, other similar people AFAIK. Of course one of the guys involved
Vanpools because he lives on Bainbridge island and commutes to Bellevue
for work. Two hours each way. His house is nice and all, but I still
think he is completely nuts.

Ditto that. 4 hours of driving must mean his family really sucks or he
is single and work is his life.

But at least he can read for most of the trip instead of being stuck
driving a car.

20 hours of reading the newspaper every week?????

Errr, now this part I don't get. Why do you need to leave a car at
home?

A small car for personal short errands? Bill Baka

/scratches head

I thought that that's what the Xtracycle is for?

/looks quizically at the audience

You know, those trips where you have to buy something too big for a bike
but too small for a van/SUV.
Bill Baka

Matthew T. Russotto wrote:
In article ,
Bill Baka wrote:
Gas is going to have to hit $3 a gallon and stay there for the soccer
mom crowd to realize they need a little Geo-Metro 3 banger just to run
to the store for a pack of smokes, or some **** paper or other silly
little errand. People are slow learners.

Your soccer mom (and husband or perhaps ex-) is paying a mortgage on a
$500,000+ McMansion, has two or more car payments, is paying
for private tutoring or private school for some number of her
offspring, probably private soccer lessons as well, and possibly
college for the older ones. $3 gas is lost in the noise.



Yeah,
And a lot of them that bought those $350,000 mini mansions 40 miles from
work are now bankrupt and foreclosed since their property value fell
through the floor over the last year. How much equity in their house?
About negative $100K.
Bill Baka

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"Bill Baka" wrote in message
. ..
Matthew T. Russotto wrote:
In article ,
Bill Baka wrote:
Gas is going to have to hit $3 a gallon and stay there for the soccer
mom crowd to realize they need a little Geo-Metro 3 banger just to run
to the store for a pack of smokes, or some **** paper or other silly
little errand. People are slow learners.

Your soccer mom (and husband or perhaps ex-) is paying a mortgage on a
$500,000+ McMansion, has two or more car payments, is paying
for private tutoring or private school for some number of her
offspring, probably private soccer lessons as well, and possibly
college for the older ones. $3 gas is lost in the noise.



Yeah,
And a lot of them that bought those $350,000 mini mansions 40 miles from
work are now bankrupt and foreclosed since their property value fell
through the floor over the last year. How much equity in their house?
About negative $100K.

Strange how the anti-urbanists in this forum just can't understand that the
reason the McMansions 30 miles from town are so cheap is that people really
would rather have something in town - but can't afford it.

On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:55:32 GMT, Bill Baka wrote:

Yes he did. Maybe not legally but my friend was high enough ranking that
he could say "Pay Bill too, or we are both going home.". After being
there 14 years they could not afford to **** Dan off. He was the only
one who knew were the bailing wire held the machines together.
Bill Baka

Which makes it an incredibly poorly run business. People die every day
and relying on the same person after 14 years to that extent is simply
stupid. It also makes it somewhat unusual - with all the changes in
that area, to think that their systems are so moribund that the same
person is the one that holds it together with bailing wire. I'm
surprised they can afford to pay anyone anything.

Then, again, a manager that is paying for work not done is an idiot
anyway. I'd want my money up front.

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Mar 6, 10:19 pm, "Daryl Hunt" wrote:
"Bill Baka" wrote in message

...



Pat wrote:
On Mar 5, 7:26 am, "George Conklin"
wrote:
"Daryl Hunt" wrote in message

...

"George Conklin" wrote in message
thlink.net...
"Bill Baka" wrote in message
gy.net...
donquijote1954 wrote:
On Mar 4, 9:49 am, "Qui si parla Campagnolo"
wrote:
On Mar 3, 11:47 am, "donquijote1954"
wrote:
Hey, be smart. You are part of the solution, not part of the
problem.
And you save the buck. Dinosaurs are a thing of the past and the
little furry animals are here to stay.
There are two versions of it...
bike:
http://www.zazzle.com/product/235847689274986069
and bus:
http://www.zazzle.com/product/235396990102826110
OK, how is the bus not polluting?
You don't see it everyday, but it's possible. Just some new
technologies and some political will to make it happen...
Heaven Help Bus
A visit to Iceland spurs dreams of a hydrogen future
The loneliness of the long-distance rider.I have seen the future,
and
it works.
The 111 bus rolls quietly up to the Mjodd terminal in eastern
Reykjavik at 11:19 a.m., and I climb aboard. For 45 minutes, we
cruise
through the suburbs and then to the central square downtown, picking
up and discharging eight passengers along the way. Fuel cells that
would have filled the space of several passenger seats five years
ago
are now small enough to fit in the roof panels. And out the exhaust
pipe: a trickle of water.
http://www.grist.org/comments/soapbo...n-hydrogenbus/

I have a dream...that someday buses will not pollute. Actually we
could make it happen now much easier than having all the cars be
replaced with hybrid. Just change the fleet of buses to hydrogen or
some other technologies out there.
We can make it happen with THE REVOLUTION. Coming soon...
Too optimistic. Somebody, somewhere is probably burning coal or oil
to
make the electricity to electrolyze the water to make the Hydrogen.
It only really works if the electricity comes from wind, solar,
hydro,
or, dare I say it, NUculear (Bush pronunciation).
Bill Baka
Anything which makes a bus more efficient would make a car even more
efficient than the bus. Right now transit buses waste fuel big time.
Not all, I think I read somewhere where a city went to Electrics.
Ok, that exports pollution to rural areas. And of course a plug-in
hybrid
electric car would meet about 90% of the commuting needs of America.

This whole Tango and electric car stuff is a load of BS. Period. It
is all a bunch of tree-hugging hyporcrits who want to feel good about
the environments without actually have to do anything about it or be
inconvenienced. Period. There are solutions out there and they are
fairly simple. But it isn't this crap.

Electric cars? Guess what. Our electric grid is near capacity and
you want to plug your cars in? Great, you feel good about having an
expensive, stupid electric car while somebody is out building a coal
or oil plant to generate electricity and ship it to you. Okay, they
might be able to put out less pollution but it is still coal or oil.
Electricity doesn't just come out of you plug. It does, however, grow
on trees. Okay, no really, but fuel grows in fields. If you want to
cut your dependence on fossil fuels, switch to vegetable oil. You
busses and trucks and cars can run on that. It's simple, less
pollution, and easily stops the dependence on fossils. Okay, don't
want that, go with bio-diesel.

REPUGLICAN ALERT!!!

Meanwhile, you little Tangos. They are nothing but publicity stunts.
They are okay for backup transportation in a city but that's about
it. But so is a motorcycle. Oh, but a motorcycle is "old technology"
and doesn't have the allure of a slick Tango. Yeah, that's my point.
If you people really gave a damn you be out riding motorcycles right
now. Plus you can throw on a trailer for groceries if you want.

Me? I don't ride public transportation and I drive a minivan. So
there you go. But we don't have public transporation and if we did,
it's be VERY wasteful because everyone around here has a car. And I
drive a van to SAVE gasoline. I haul lots of kids to and froe
practices and having a van that can carry 4 or 5 teens plus gear sure
beats taking two trips. But when the weather is nice and I have to go
somewhere, I ride one of my 3 motorcycles that range in gas milage
from about 35 mpg to about 100 mpg. And the less expensive the bike I
have, the better the gas mileage. Plus they take up very little
parking. But you know what, riding the most fuel efficient vehicle on
the road has NOTHING to do with gas mileage. They are just fun to
ride. My smallest bike doesn't have much of a motor, but by 450 cc
bike that is 25 years old still gets 70 mph and can out accelerate and
outperform most cars on the road.

So if you want to do something about energy and efficiency and
pollution, go do it. But the whole "make it electric" arguement is
pretty stupid because all you are doing is changing where the fuel is
burned. And none of that stuff about "hydro" because all hydro is
used to 100% capacity and any incrimental electricity is fossil. Oh,
so you want more hydro. I'm fine with that. But I live in the
country because I like it and I don't want any more valleys flooded so
people in cities can go do stupid things. Go damn up your own
rivers. Go put a damn across the Hudson. NYC has so many reseviours
upstate they they have already devastated the Catskills. Pretty lakes
you say? Yeah, but what about the people that used to live there who
were flooded out of their homes. What about the rivers that are gone
and the trout that aren't there? So maybe nuclear is a good thing.
It might be. In 30 or 40 years when they get done cleaning up the
nuclear reprocessing plant 30 miles from here, we'll discuss it.
Actually I don't mind it, so if you want nuclear for Long Island or
NYC, go put it on Long Island or NYC. Oh, that's right, they tried
that and the people didnt want it. So if you want nuclear, why do YOU
want the electricity but you want ME to deal with the consequences? I
don't dump crap in your city so you keep your crap out of my rural
area.

As for bicycles? A great idea. Probably everyone in NYC and most
other cities should have one or a scooter or small motorcyle. But
they are not the answer for everyone.

$6 gas. What about it. I'll go down on the Rez and buy it for $5.
And as soon as the price of oil exceeds that of cooking oil, bio
diesel sure will look sweat. Okay, the roads will smell like a
chinese restaurant, but some people will like that.

Fuel cells might use gas more efficently, but they are still using
gas. So what's the big deal. Moving a car that some drives in a city
from 30 mpg to 50 saves 13 gallon of fuel over 1000 miles. Moving a
truck from 8 mpg to 12 mpg saves 42 gallons. Biodiesel would save 125
gallons of oil.

Sorry for the rant, but if you are going to save the world, be
practical and do thing that really make a difference, not just get
what you don't want to see out of your sight.

Sorry for the rant, but this

Dude,
Slow down.
The idea for electric cars should be that if one just has to own an SUV
(soccer mom or guy who needs the hauling space) then they should have one.
They should also be required to buy a little tiny, barely can get into it,
econo-box for running around town to do those non-hauling trips. The
little one can be a total electric that you plug in at night and never go
over 30 miles in one day.
The insurance companies could help by making large vehicles pay a much
bigger fee for comprehensive collision liability for the SUV and almost
nothing for the little econo box.
The bottom line is that if you are an ecology abuser you get to pay.
Bill Baka

Yes, and gas is heading back to over 3 bucks a gallon. Since the technology
is already here for the electric vehicles (I ride one myself and haven't
paid for fuel since Nov 2004) one would think that there might be somewhat
or greater of an incentive to get that ol electric bike, car, MC or MiniVan
going just by pluging it in. Our grid is well below needing help so we have
more than we need. Shoot, chances are, we sell some of it to where you are.
But I doubt if electric vehicles will bust many grids since the recharging
takes less than a normal lightbulb. Mine takes about 2 to 5 amp per hour.
That's many times less than a light bulb and about the same as a decent
clock radio.


Sure you've bought lots and lots of fuel. You've just bought it
somewhere else and given that area your pollution.

I'm not sure how an electric MC would work. Seems like it would be
awkward. Besides, you would Harley get their sound?

We have more that we need, sometimes, but we don't during peak and
that's the problem. Interestingly, were I live, we have winter peak,
not summer peak, so we don't contribute to the problem as much as all
of the folk who depend on AC to live through the summer. Of course,
it's 5F right now, snowing, and we have 2.5 feet of snow on the
ground.)

Finally, electric that needs recharging like you have would work for
most people around here. We have too many people traveling too far
for it to work. Tomorrow I'm going about 7.5 hours for a trip.
That's a long ways to go on a battery, esp. if you are using it to
heat the car (10F and 70mph wind chill). It might work in some areas,
but you're still burning something for electricity.

(side note, we are 100% hydro, but not for environmental reasons. our
muni electric buys it from Canada because it's cheap).

Rather than getting rid of cars, that aren't used all that much. Why
not just get rid of air conditioners. they are on all of the time and
use a huge amount of electricity.

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Pat wrote:
Finally, electric that needs recharging like you have would work for
most people around here. We have too many people traveling too far
for it to work. Tomorrow I'm going about 7.5 hours for a trip.
That's a long ways to go on a battery, esp. if you are using it to
heat the car (10F and 70mph wind chill). It might work in some areas,
but you're still burning something for electricity.

(side note, we are 100% hydro, but not for environmental reasons. our
muni electric buys it from Canada because it's cheap).

Rather than getting rid of cars, that aren't used all that much. Why
not just get rid of air conditioners. they are on all of the time and
use a huge amount of electricity.

Try living in central California where 100's are common or Arkansas
where 98 degrees and 98% humidity makes sweating in the shade a sport.
Some places need A/C.
For the record I owned a huge 5,000 square foot house in Minnesota north
of the twin cities and it had 4 kinds of heat.
1. Propane forced air.
2. Electric baseboards.
3. Oil fired hot water radiators.
4. 2 wood burning stoves and a fireplace.
5. Even a fire place in the detached 1,000 square foot garage.
When it got to 25 below zero I used wood as much as possible but needed
to use the others when the wood ran out at about 3 in the morning.
Except for the wood which just required me to chop it, the rest cost
real money.
There are no free rides.
Bill Baka

Baxter wrote:
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-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Free software - Baxter Codeworks www.baxcode.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------


"Bill Baka" wrote in message
. ..
Matthew T. Russotto wrote:
In article ,
Bill Baka wrote:
Gas is going to have to hit $3 a gallon and stay there for the soccer
mom crowd to realize they need a little Geo-Metro 3 banger just to run
to the store for a pack of smokes, or some **** paper or other silly
little errand. People are slow learners.
Your soccer mom (and husband or perhaps ex-) is paying a mortgage on a
$500,000+ McMansion, has two or more car payments, is paying
for private tutoring or private school for some number of her
offspring, probably private soccer lessons as well, and possibly
college for the older ones. $3 gas is lost in the noise.



Yeah,
And a lot of them that bought those $350,000 mini mansions 40 miles from
work are now bankrupt and foreclosed since their property value fell
through the floor over the last year. How much equity in their house?
About negative $100K.

Strange how the anti-urbanists in this forum just can't understand that the
reason the McMansions 30 miles from town are so cheap is that people really
would rather have something in town - but can't afford it.


The difference is more than made up for when living in town. Spend more
on the house and less (maybe nothing) on new cars, gas, insurance, etc.
Spending 2-4 hours a day driving makes no sense to me.
Of course these same people who got foreclosed on in only a year went
nuts with 2 SUV's, and even dome had riding lawn mowers for their 20' by
30' patches of grass. Did I feel sorry for them when they went belly up
due to overspending? Nope.
Bill Baka

Curtis L. Russell wrote:
On Thu, 08 Mar 2007 02:55:32 GMT, Bill Baka wrote:

Yes he did. Maybe not legally but my friend was high enough ranking that
he could say "Pay Bill too, or we are both going home.". After being
there 14 years they could not afford to **** Dan off. He was the only
one who knew were the bailing wire held the machines together.
Bill Baka

Which makes it an incredibly poorly run business. People die every day
and relying on the same person after 14 years to that extent is simply
stupid. It also makes it somewhat unusual - with all the changes in
that area, to think that their systems are so moribund that the same
person is the one that holds it together with bailing wire. I'm
surprised they can afford to pay anyone anything.

Then, again, a manager that is paying for work not done is an idiot
anyway. I'd want my money up front.

It was upper management, which in the case of this company has been so
incompetent that they are closing the doors in a few months. In the 3
months that I worked there as a maintenance electrician I saw that the
boss of the maintenance shop was fairly competent but had to take his
fair share of BS from the 2 higher managers. They finally fired the in
between manager who was responsible for many of the plant operation
problems, but the top guy who was a complete idiot and a friend or
relative of the big corporate bosses kept his job long enough to trash
what was left of the company. Sometimes a company can live through bad
management, but 14 years of it can take down even a once very profitable
business.
Bill Baka

Curtis L. Russell
Odenton, MD (USA)
Just someone on two wheels...

On Mar 8, 11:01 am, Bill Baka wrote:
Pat wrote:
Finally, electric that needs recharging like you have would work for
most people around here. We have too many people traveling too far
for it to work. Tomorrow I'm going about 7.5 hours for a trip.
That's a long ways to go on a battery, esp. if you are using it to
heat the car (10F and 70mph wind chill). It might work in some areas,
but you're still burning something for electricity.

(side note, we are 100% hydro, but not for environmental reasons. our
muni electric buys it from Canada because it's cheap).

Rather than getting rid of cars, that aren't used all that much. Why
not just get rid of air conditioners. they are on all of the time and
use a huge amount of electricity.

Try living in central California where 100's are common or Arkansas
where 98 degrees and 98% humidity makes sweating in the shade a sport.
Some places need A/C.
For the record I owned a huge 5,000 square foot house in Minnesota north
of the twin cities and it had 4 kinds of heat.
1. Propane forced air.
2. Electric baseboards.
3. Oil fired hot water radiators.
4. 2 wood burning stoves and a fireplace.
5. Even a fire place in the detached 1,000 square foot garage.
When it got to 25 below zero I used wood as much as possible but needed
to use the others when the wood ran out at about 3 in the morning.
Except for the wood which just required me to chop it, the rest cost
real money.
There are no free rides.
Bill Baka

That's exactly my point. AC allowed the development of California
and Arkansas and then people pitch about the energy usage an
pollution. If you want to do something real about pollution, move
somewhere that requires less energy to live. Even as it is,
electricity is notoriously inefficient. I heat my house from maybe
November to April (or so, depending on the year) and then use no power
for heating and cooling (other than cooking and hot water) for the
rest of the year. No energy usage is the only free ride. I use 1 fan
upstairs if it really hot out. It isn't cars that create the energy
crisis and pollution, it is AC. Its impact on society has been huge.