So, I worked as a parking lot attendant for two days at a sustainability conference, and the strain on my sense of irony was ... monumental.
Yes, people need to know how to make goat cheese, or beer, or do raw milk, or convert engines to run on veggie oil, or treat mild illnesses from the herb garden, but ... to drive all the way from Eugene, or Corvallis, or Roseburg, or Seattle, to learn these things on a small farm in the middle of nowhere, and then drive back? Yeesh!
Yes, I biked, but I live 2 miles down the road. Hardly anyone else did, and considering the distance from town, and the state of the road shoulders, and all the mojo-pickups with dual wheels sweeping those road shoulders at 70 miles an hour in 55 mile an hour zones, not biking was, yet again, the wise choice for most.
The railroad goes by right in front of the farm, though, and twice I watched the Coast Starlight go by, right in front of us. How hard, really, could it be, to have a charterable consist of self-propelled railcars to make the fourteen mile journey with two carloads of festival attenders? The tracks were empty across the road except for about fifteen minutes total, out of the twelve hours or so that I stood there, and this is a mainline.
A century ago, in fact, this was exactly how it was done. A hundred church picnickers would hire a train to get them out into the countryside, and at the end of the day, bring them back again. Nowadays, it seems, this can only be done on abandoned rails repurposed for tourists, at a steep price. But perhaps changes are in the wind.
I can't find it now but there was an article recently that noted that the litigious and grumptious relationship between petroleum-based cars and their manufacturers, and the oil companies (on the one hand) and bicycle commuters and makers of things like three-wheeled electric cars and Segways (on the other) is not that bicycles and such are too slow, but that the standards for convenient travel, geared toward the capabilities of internal combustion engines, are too fast. The context was the continual wrangle over bike lanes; the author felt the whole street should be safe for powering down.
I do think there is something to that. If lead-acid based systems are the only ones that will be available to us peons (those with less than $40,000 to spend on a car or truck) in the foreseeable future, then 25 mph speed limits are the only way to ensure our entry into any post-oil Great Automotive Commuter Society.
Perhaps next year the event organizers will consider chartering a bus to their event and organizing a group bike ride with a support van. Veggie-diesel support van, of course. With a hint of lavender in the exhaust.
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"The railroad goes by right in front of the farm, though, and twice I watched the Coast Starlight go by, right in front of us. How hard, really, could it be,"
ReplyDeleteI would think the paperwork to get permission would take more energy than the autos.
And you would be right. Such is the import of rhetorical questions -- i.e., I was whining.
ReplyDeleteAt least one community in our state, though, has been considering bringing back the Budd car concept.
I love that you're volunteering - it's one of my more passionate soap boxes. I'll be working a bike valet a few Saturdays at our downtown Farmers Market this summer.
ReplyDeleteIt's hard to even get long-distance passenger trains onto tracks these days - everything is owned by the freight lines (I've ridden the CA Zephyr to/from Colorado, and we frequently sat on a side track until a freight passed). I understand that you're just sniveling but it's a good thought. If there were a side spur to get the passenger car off the main line it might be feasible.
It's dual trackage with sidings all over the place -- Union Pacific hates passenger traffic, and put so many obstacles in front of the Starlight (literally) that it came to be known as the Starlate. So Amtrak sued -- and won -- for priority and they still do it -- and pay the fines -- with a sneer, I'm told. But what do I know, I'm just a bean bunny up in the hills (whose dad worked for the railroads for thirty years) ... enjoy the valet thingy, it's such a chance to start the visit right for the arriving customers! -- and as a tour guide, you must be the right person for the job!
ReplyDeleteI live in the country, and can't even safely bike the 4 miles or so into my little town, mainly for the reasons you cited - narrow farm road, 60 mph speed limit on same farm road (often exceeded), NO shoulder at all, big pickups hauling butt. One of the very few things I miss about city life is public transportation.
ReplyDeleteAll this may not change in our lifetime ... but just in case, a friend told me, she is ready (with a rubber tired wagon and big steady horses) to go into carting at any time, so I told her I'd be happy to ride shotgun!
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