Re: Gas prices knock bicycle sales, repairs into higher gear

> Just read a NYT ... article about this in the US.

=v= This one?

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/business/10transit.html

> Public transit use is up about 5% in the larger cities with
> well developed transit systems (Boston, NYC, SF) and a little
> less so with less developed or newer public transit like
> Houston.  Southern cities, with more car-centric attitudes
> have lower increases than northern or western cities.

=v= Actually, though this is true of the San Francisco
metropolitan area, but not San Francisco itself.  Notice that
the _Times_ article goes on to mention rider****p increases
in the regional BART and Caltrain systems, but not for the
city's Muni.  Muni is so messed up that the densest city on
the West Coast is *losing* riders even as transit rider****p
increases in nearby sprawling communities!

=v= This is because mayor Gavin Newsom has saddled the city with
simultaneous cutbacks and fare hikes, with predictable results.
Then he hired some fare inspectors ("Muni Goonies"), who have
not managed to find enough fare-evasion going on to justify
their own salaries, but who have certainly managed to make the
experience much less pleasant.  One of them yelled out their
apparent mantra:  "If you don't like it, call a cab."

=v= I don't like it, so I bike.

> I'm seeing *many* more bicyclists now on road and path locally
> as well.

=v= The nice weather might also have something to do with it.
    <_Jym_>

P.S.:  Mayor Newsom is currently off touring to explain how
"green" he is.  If he should happen to drop by your town,
drop by and ask him how ecological it is, exactly, to destroy
a city's transit system.