You'll need some more Fuelperks for this price

A few weeks ago, I lamented about the serious lack of discussion in this country and mass transit (in general) and high-speed rail (in particular). A week and a half ago, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette had an article about an author named Christopher Steiner and his wordily titled book "$20 Per Gallon: How the Inevitable Rise in the Price of Gasoline Will Change Our Lives For the Better".

As you can see from the title, Mr. Steiner is actually HOPING that gasoline climbs higher and higher so that society will be spurred on to innovation in technologies, a return to simpler lives, and a re-examination on mass transit. Each chapter is titled "Chapter $5" or "Chapter $8" detailing what will happen when gas reaches that specific price per gallon.

For instance, in Chapter $6, Mr. Steiner says the SUV will disappear from usage. Chapter $10 will bring the electric car into discussion prominently along with other cutting-edge vehicle types such as compressed air. Chapter $20 brings about the death of Wal-Mart (too much money in shipping costs), the triumph of downtowns over the suburbs and full high-speed rail usage in this country.

It's an interesting concept of a book and one that I may pick up to read, but ultimately it is unrealistic. The "hidden forces" that moderate the world's economy will simply not allow oil prices to climb that sharply in a short period of time. The interconnected web of our geo-economy is tied to shipping costs and platforms (air, land, sea) that run on oil.

I'm all for a national network of high-speed rail and even more developed local forms of mass transit, but it is inconcievable that the world's leaders would stand by without somehow artificially controlling the growth in price of oil.

Oil and gas companies are exploring every square inch of the globe for heretofore unknown or otherwise difficult-to-reach pockets of oil and natural gas. In fact, whether this makes me a hypocrite or not, I'm banking on just such a company striking oil off the coast of Guinea later this year.

The car and mass transit can co-exist peacefully. Not everything in our world needs to be This or That.

Amoeba Cities

A megalopolis is defined as a cluster of cities and their metropolitan regions that have 10 million or more people in it. Ground transportation links such as railroads and highway interconnect these cities and commute their commerce. I was surprised to learn that the United States has 13 megalopolises (or megaregions) within its borders or extending in some cases into Canada and Mexico.

Even more surprising is that Pittsburgh is part of the largest megalopolis in North America -- the Great Lakes Megalopolis. The Great Lakes Megalopolis is comprised of:
Chicago
Toronto
Detroit
Pittsburgh
Milwaukee
St. Louis
Minneapolis
Ottawa
Indianapolis
Kansas City
Cleveland
Cincinnati
Dayton
Columbus
Grand Rapids
Toledo
Akron
Buffalo
Rochester

Whew! All told these regions had a 2000 census population of 53.8 million people, with a projected 2025 population of 63.7 million.

Now...I don't know about you, but I don't feel any kinship with my brethern in, say, Grand Rapids. Couldn't tell you much about Milwaukee and have no bond with Dayton. I've been to Akron and it really sucks as a city.

I'm wondering if in our current lifetimes we will ever see two cities actually expand towards each other, like amoebas blindly flailing away in the primordial ooze. Our closest major urban neighbor is Cleveland, which I have been to twice this year already. It has its share of problems, both financial and social, but it has promise as well. Cleveland is virtually Pittsburgh's sister city as it is.
The technology that will foster the amoeba city migration is high-speed rail. Currently it takes a shade over 2 hours and 15 minutes to drive from downtown Pittsburgh to downtown Cleveland (traffic not withstanding). That's at a cruising speed of 75 mph. What if you could get there in half the time on a dedicated high-speed rail line? What would that do for business? Imagine getting up at your usual wake-up time and going to Cleveland for a 9 am meeting. Heck, what would that do for pleasure? A Clevelander could dine at Salt of the Earth at 7 pm and still be comfortably back by the 10 pm news. A Pittsburgh could enjoy Lola and then sit back and be swept back home at 160 mph.

Our world is simply getting smaller. Information is available instantly at our fingertips now. We can Skype in with people anywhere in the world. Sadly, our businesses know no bounds -- products are made and sold everywhere in the world. But our transportation network, at least in the United States, is still modeled from the 1960's gas guzzling era.

High-speed rail came into the national discussion recently when these two forward thinking governor-elects, from Ohio and Wisconsin, turned down $1.2 BILLION dollars to construct high-speed rail lines in their states. These weren't planning studies, either. These were funds to construct high-speed rail linkages between the major cities in these states. Ohio turned down $400 million to link Cleveland, Cincinnati, and Columbus. Wisconsin rejected $810 million to link Madison and Milwaukee. Both were concerned that the operating and maintenance costs would outweigh the revenue received.

While that's valid, it's also short-sighted. Companies and residents alike would flock to the opportunity to have that much freedom to move goods and be transported. It would be a model for the rest of the United States, especially in this era when everyone is trying to prove how green they are compared to the next guy. High-speed rail is king in Europe, where gas prices are nearly double what they are here. But therein lies the problem...we are a nation suckling at the teat of the oil industry, both domestic and foreign sources. Until we wake up and realize what we're doing, we'll never see what we are missing.