Advocates argue free transit benefits us all

Georgia Straight, Vancouver's News & Entertainment Weekly: "DAVE OLSEN HAS an idea for how to get Metro Vancouver voters engaged in a transit referendum.

Let’s talk about a system where everyone rides free, the environmental consultant suggests.

After all, except for the tolled Golden Ears and Port Mann bridges, roads are free. Yet like transit, car-oriented infrastructure is paid for with tax dollars, noted the former Vancouver resident, who is based on Lasqueti Island.

“Transit is the only mode of transportation that really has a toll,” Olsen told the Georgia Straight in a phone interview. “You can drive anywhere you want for free. And you can bike anywhere you want. And walk anywhere you want.”"

Oil companies struggle to make a buck since peak of cheap oil in 2005

Why turning a buck isn't easy anymore for oil's biggest players - The Globe and Mail: "The reason for such stagnant market performance comes down to the cost of both discovering new oil reserves and getting it out of the ground. According to the International Energy Agency’s 2013 World Energy Outlook, global exploration spending has increased by 180 per cent since 2000, while global oil supplies have risen by only 14 per cent. That’s a pretty low batting average.

Shell’s quest for new reserves has seen it pump billions into money-devouring plays such as its Athabasca Oil Sands Project in northern Alberta and the Kashagan oilfield, a deeply troubled project in Kazakhstan. It has even tried deep water drilling in the high Arctic. That attempt ended when the stormy waters of the Chukchi Sea crippled its Kulluk drilling platform, forcing the company to pull up stakes."



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More Crude Oil Spilled on rail in 2013 Than Previous Four Decades Combined

The Contributor: "More crude oil spilled from train accidents in 2013 alone than in the previous four decades combined—an alarming number reported by McClatchy News on Monday that points towards a drastic shift in the highly toxic, yet growing, crude oil business to rail transport."

Why #carsharing and #bikesharing are a step in the right direction

Car sharing companies are growing. With public transit and bike sharing, car sharing allows people to live without owning a car.

The auto system is a very complex system that is uneconomic. In other words, it cannot afford to provide its service for the amount that people can afford to pay. Consequently it survives with heavy subsidy. Justifying the subsidy requires that the system have critical mass -- that it is seen as the "only" way to move people.

Car sharing depresses demand for new cars. This weakens one part of the complex system, creating a need for more subsidy. Eventually critical mass will be lost and the subsidy will be seen as a burden instead of necessity.

Could you have written this post? Yes, of course you could. Economics is not difficult, it is just full of disinformation. Contact fpteditors at gmail dot com and become a freetransit blogger.