[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '.')..
I was on vacation and went to Seattle WA to see what there was to see a couple weeks ago and discovered that at least several of their down town bus routes are duel fueld, diesel and cantenary wire electric. This got me to thinking about long haul trucking, which in essence uses the same volume vehicle as one of those large articulated city busses. I could see a slight possibillity of the government putting up cantenary wires in a special truck lane on the federal highways and having all the trucks using that lane tracked by GPS and billed for the electricity consumed.

[RedStateGreen]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('patience', '
')
I'm convinced that the answers to PO lie in a multitude of small solutions, not a magic, one-dose breakthrough.

[Tanada]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', '.')..
I was on vacation and went to Seattle WA to see what there was to see a couple weeks ago and discovered that at least several of their down town bus routes are duel fueld, diesel and cantenary wire electric. This got me to thinking about long haul trucking, which in essence uses the same volume vehicle as one of those large articulated city busses. I could see a slight possibillity of the government putting up cantenary wires in a special truck lane on the federal highways and having all the trucks using that lane tracked by GPS and billed for the electricity consumed.

[patience]

A lot of things are going to have to localize to get past the last-mile problem. Farmers here routinely haul hay 10 to 20 miles to sell. Last year due to drought here, some hay came in from Nebraska to Indiana by truck. They now use round balers that are energy intensive to get around the lack of willing teenagers that used to handle small square bales. That in turn was an energy intensive solution to the toil of making hay with horse drawn rakes and pitchforks to put in on a wagon, then into a stack. Eventually we'll go full circle there, and hauling hay to the neighbor's will be about it for transport.

[MrBill]

Cube, in Nepal a lot of goods cover the last mile (or hundred) on foot. If labor is cheap enough. I foresee a lot of regional distribution networks supplied by water and rail, and a lot less just in time (JIT) distribution. Larger, less frequent loads. More inventory by design.
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'P')aradigm, which specializes in the highly controlled business of transporting perishable goods such as beef and produce, is a niche player in the third-party transportation logistics market. So-called 3PLs allow manufacturers and retailers to deal with a single point of contact to get their products on the fastest and most cost-effective routes.

“Private fleets in smaller companies are in decline,” says Chris Kuehl, chief economist for the Rockford, Illinois-based Fabricators and Manufacturers Association, which represents companies in the metal forming and fabricating industries. “Fuel costs are certainly accelerating that.”

For small to mid-sized companies, which frequently lack the purchasing muscle or volume to shop for the best price, using a 3PL can make a big difference to the bottom line. Kuehl says members of his association have seen savings of 5 to 20 percent on their logistics costs by outsourcing, depending on how complex their systems were prior to the switchover.

Outsourcing allows the companies to focus on manufacturing and marketing their products, rather than servicing trucks and tracking goods. Adding to the incentive are federal emissions compliance standards, set to become more stringent in 2010, and a shortage of qualified truckers.

continued

Ryder, for instance, often works in collaboration with its customers to prompt operational changes that take advantage of economies in the transportation market. In recent months, the company helped Intirion Corp., a Walpole, Massachusetts-based manufacture of appliances such as the MicroFridge combination refrigerator/freezer/microwave, benefit from the cheaper cost of rail. Intirion has boosted its rail shipments to about 35 percent from a prior 10 percent, says Jim Russo, the company’s vice president and general manager.

But because train shipments are slower – a West Coast to East Coast trip can take two weeks on the rails versus three to four days over the road – Intirion had to make up the time by accelerating its manufacturing.

“We’re modifying the quantities we’re producing, modifying the timing of when the production is done,” says Russo. “That allows us to build up inventories to bring to rail.”

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Tanada', 'I') saw a bus just like that one Cube, but I was thinking of the articulated ones you guys use out there with the extension behind the back axle to add a passenger section and third axle.

[Snowrunner]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', '
')In terms of "problems" the world will be facing public transit capacity is somewhere near the bottom of the list.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Snowrunner', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'I')n terms of "problems" the world will be facing public transit capacity is somewhere near the bottom of the list.

[Twilight]

Legend has it, the busiest bus corridor in the world is in Manchester city center, UK.

Photo 1

Photo 2

Seating and standing room for about 80 people on each, and they do run full during peak hours. Once there was gridlock and they were bumper to bumper for a mile. I got off, walked for 15 minutes and got to my destination first. It is rarely that bad though. But it is pricey - works out at 50p per mile, and no McMansions in sight.

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', 'P')roblems with bendy buses in London
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_art ... ontroversy
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/arti ... article.do
http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/arti ... article.do
Gasmon

[cube]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('Twilight', 'L')egend has it, the busiest bus corridor in the world is in Manchester city center, UK.

[Twilight]

Nice caricature. No way would that be stable, let alone fit under bridges. The top deck must be cosmetic.

[Denny]

It would be interesting to capture people's experiences who lived through World War II on this matter.

I wasn't there, but I know most consumer goods were in very limited supply, and transport was in especially tight supply. Regular people were mostly limited to 3 gallons of gas per week, do did a lot of car pooling. Exceptions were made for doctors, farmers and ministers as a lot of their work required travel. (Remember when doctors did house calls?) But, I am not so clear on how goods deliveries were made.

Apparently, the principal rationale for the rationing of fuel was actually to conserve rubber. Most rubber was committed to the war production. Consumers could not even replace a tire during the war, regardless of how much fuel rations they had. And, no new automobiles were built from 1942 (1941 in Canada) until the end of 1945.

[r101958]

you might enjoy this story. it happened rather recently:

http://www.backpackfever.com/2008/01/21 ... -meltdown/

[Denny]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('GASMON', '')$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('cube', 'P')erhaps it's just not meant for London?

[BlueGhostNo2]

The Independent, return of UK shipping

So, looks like these things are already happening.

[MrBill]

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', '[')u]British Waterways regards itself primarily as a "heritage and leisure organisation", and critics say it fails to give sufficient priority to freight. Vital wharves are being sold for waterfront development schemes, according to transport experts. In central Leeds, aggregates firm Lafarge's lease on a wharf on the Aire & Calder canal was not renewed as the land had been marked for development. The firm was forced to build a new wharf outside the city, transporting its sand and gravel into Leeds by lorry.