Those Who Can't Do Math, Take The Train

The local paper has a story about all of the people switching to riding Amtrak.

Imagine lines of passengers waiting for departure, baggage sprawled about, sold-out tickets and chaos in the parking lot.

This is the scene at the Newport News Amtrak Station throughout the week at any given departure time.
With high gas prices and tough economic times upon us, it's no wonder why many people are deciding to park their vehicles and board a train.

Karina Romero, an Amtrak spokeswoman, said that as of June, the company reported an 11 percent increase in ridership across the country.

This picture shows the Newport News station. Chaos in the parking lot? How is that possible? It only has 50 spaces.

"My husband and I were just noticing that it is a lot more crowded than we expected," she said. "I think more people are riding the train because it is less than flying and because gas has gotten so high. Gas is terrible."

Obviously we have a situation where these people can't do simple math. Or, they drive real gas hogs. Or both.

Let's do the math, shall we? I just priced the cost of a round-trip from Newport News to NYC on Amtrak for a three day trip. The cost of the fare is $220 for two.

Now my thrifty little Civic gets 40 mpg with just me in it. Let's assume it gets only 35 mpg once I add in the spouse and baggage (Sorry, honey.) So, for $220 I could buy 55 gallons of $4 gasoline, and travel 1925 miles.

Problem is, the distance to NYC is only about 400 miles, so the price of gas for a round-trip would only be about $92. Granted, they won't be paying the cost of parking once they get there ($65/day at the Holiday Inn in SoHo, for example), or tolls on the NJ Turnpike, but still, gas prices are no excuse folks.

It is better as you travel further. The roundtrip for two to Denver would be about $1000, and it takes 48 hours one-way to make the trip. Gas for my car would run about $440 for that distance, plus an undoubted need for an oil change when I was done.

Still, jeez, I've driven that same run in about 36 hours. Can you imagine being on trains continuously for 2+ days? No chance to wash decently or anything.

Au contraire! Those classic private cabins are still available on the train. They do bump up the cost though, to about $2950 for 2 people.

By the way, the same trip via Orbitz is about $1038 for two people, packed in like sardines, but for only 9 or 10 hours, not 48. First class tickets are available from about $2050 for two.

Norwegians Announce Plan to Migrate to Reindeer Pulled Sleighs

OK, they claim to want to convert to biodeisel.

Norway's government is working on a proposal that could lead to a ban on the sale of gasoline-powered cars.

The parliamentary transport groups in the governing Labour, Socialist Left and Center parties have aired the proposal, and the Transport Ministry is now working intensely to determine whether such a ban is possible, newspaper VG reports.

"This is not a problem to arrange. In Brazil over 80 percent of cars sold run on bio-ethanol. Most of the major car makers are banking on flexi-fuel," said Labor parliamentary transport committee representative Truls Wickstrøm.

"Such a ban would pressure the automobile industry into developing technology faster than it otherwise would," said Jenny Klinge, the Center Party representative on the transport committee.

Yes, but where are you going to get the plant matter for this? Norway is not notes for its extensive vegetation cover.

Participatory GIS - Gas Prices

There is a site out there called Gasbuddy.com that is a good example of participatory GIS. People submit the local price of gasoline to the site. The website then maps the station and displays it for all comers. You can zoom and pan on the map to wherever you want.

However, as you zoom out you eventually get to this "heat map" (sort of like the one for Zillow on housing prices). Prices only stay posted for 12 hours, so you know you're always seeing the latest. Members get points towards prizes for submitting more prices.

Personally, I wondered about the high prices in the Midwest. It turns out this site also has a page for gas taxes, and those are 15-20 cents higher per gallon in Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan than in surrounding states. So, Representative Stupak of Michigan can just kiss our a**.