Category: Transportation

Gas prices make people crazy.

On the one hand, you get the "serves us right crowd." You know the argument: We deserve to pay $4 a gallon, because we drive big cars and haven't been serious about energy conservation for, oh, the last 20 years. Cutting the gas tax or slapping a windfall profits tax on oil companies would be silly since everything in this market is driven by supply and demand.

On the other hand, you find the "birthright crowd." These folks basically argue that gas was a dollar a gallon when they were kids and it should be $1 a gallon now. We deserve cheap gas, because it is so important. If only we drilled enough, cut taxes enough or pressured OPEC enough things would return to "normal."

In the U.S., bus travel has become almost a relic of the past. When was the last time you hopped aboard a Greyhound for a trip across the country or to a neighboring city? For most of us, it's easier and faster to fly or drive ourselves.

But, it seems bus travel could be poised for a comeback. DePaul University's Chaddick Institute for Metropolitan Development has been researching bus travel in the U.S. over the past half-century. Drawing on arrivals and departures from several American cities, the Institute found those cities lost about thirty percent of their scheduled intercity bus service between 1960 and 1980. They lost more than sixty percent of their remaining service between 1980 and 2005.

But, something interesting happened in early 2006. People started riding the bus again.