Filed under: Culture Shock, Environment, Technology | Tags: Acela, France TGV, high-speed train, Obama, Pittsburgh
the French high-speed train
I’m living in Pittsburgh for 3 years now, wondering why modern America is still favoring long, painful and unpredictable air transit over high-speed trains for medium distances. France has built a high-speed train network for decades, and I’m still not used to the hassle of air transportation to travel from Pittsburgh to cities as close as Philadelphia or Boston. Even though the two cities are “only” 560 miles distant, spending over 4 hours to fly from Pittsburgh to Boston via Detroit looks like a common thing to do, against geography (traveling almost twice the distance) and common sense (standing in hallways half of the time). Not to mention the risk of bad weather conditions, the two poor crackers you’ll get for lunch, and the overweight person overflowing your seat while staring at the half cracker you are sparing for dinner. A long journey indeed.
I understand that private investors alone cannot afford the cost of high-speed network infrastructure and long-term return on investment . And those who can might well be discouraged to do so by Boeing lobbyists. But when you think of the total hours of work lost daily due to deficient air transportation, the productivity loss for the country as a whole is huge! Despite that and an overwhelming 40% unsatisfied airline passengers, America did not invest in efficient ground infrastructure for decades.
Things might change in the close future as Obama unveiled a high-speed rail plan for America today. It might also be a great chance for the French technology to cross the Atlantic. But to succeed, high-speed trains will have to convince the American public that trains can actually move much faster than the existing Acela “high-speed” connection between Boston and Washington (over 6 hours for 440 miles!). As for the French technology to succeed in America, I’m afraid it would cost too much effort to convince the American public that France and Technology are actually compatible … Even though the TGV remains the fastest train in the world today, “world-class technology” (beside US technology of course) is a trademark by Japan and Germany!
Filed under: Environment, Fun stuff | Tags: American way of life, Global Warming, grassfire.org, restriction of carbon emissions, Steve Eliott
No, that’s not a joke as I first thought it was when listening to the news this morning. The guy – Steve Eliott is his name – got interviewed for 2 or 3 long minutes at the morning radio news for his organization’s initiative to invite American citizens releasing the more carbon dioxide they can on June 12. “Let’s make it a great big belch!“. Not only is the objective to protest against carbon restriction measures – that endanger our “good old American way of life” -, but according to Eliott, “it might be good for the planet to increase our carbon footprint, since there are less trees naturally rejecting carbon at night”. Grassfire.org – Eliott’s conservative grass-root organization (as he presents it) – proudly claims on its website that it collected more than 10,000 citizen’s signatures against restrictions on carbon emissions and that more than 100,000,000 pounds of CO2 are set to be released (yes, you must commit to a number when joining the belch day!).
So let’s have some fun tomorrow, turn the air-con on high and drive like crazy! Let the people in Washington know what we think of that Global Warming crap and supposedly endangered polar bears!
But I suggest you send the gas bill to Grassfire.org and let THEM know what it costs you – not the polar bears – to increase your carbon footprint on such a “great belch day” 
Have fun! (I can’t wait getting my speed ticket! So exciting!)
PS: HERE are two people who might not join the party. Sorry for them.
