Truckee Tahoe Aerial Tramway?

[Patches]

Boggles the mind... the buses here are fine, except that there aren't enough of them. No one wants to stand by the side of the road for a half hour waiting for a bus which then stops every couple minutes because so many people are on each one. 500 million is a perpetual real value stream of maybe 15 million dollars per year. If the buses were subsidized by that amount we could have a bus every 5 minutes and never really have to wait, and transit times would be way faster (less people getting on and off each bus). And no maintenance costs on top of the $500 million. And get on or off wherever you want not at one of three or four terminals.

Do that first, prove that people will use public transport if you actually set up a good system, then think about investing the huge $$$.

[the_immaculatedeception]

Although this plan may be bad in practice, it's good in principal. The funny thing is we view mountain living as a more "natural" way of living as opposed to cities. Any yet mountain living is completely dependent on fossil fuel burning vehicles unlike many of us in cities who bike everywhere and use buses only when needed. And these pollutants in valley and mountain terrain more fragile to the effects of these. If there's any community that will see the effects of global warming first , it's going to be mountain communities dependent on winter travel and tourism. Ideas like this need to be given serious attention, and I hope that this dialogue continues and more valid ideas are created and put into practice.

But then again, my opinion is biased having ditched my last car back in '95 in exchange for biking and taking the Bay Area Ski Bus 2-3 times a week to go ski. One of the sticking points keeping me from ditching SF for the Tahoe Truckee area is not having a vehicle and being unable to get around. Improved mass transit in the area would see me ditching the rat race here in the City and making it happen there.

[Gopher]

Yeah, getting around isn't ideal up here without a car. But, I've been living up here for 10 years without a car and I still don't have one. It's not too bad. Most resorts have shuttles, the bus system works, buddies give you rides, and hitch hiking is easy.

Getting up and down to The City isn't terrible either. You take to bus fromTruckee to Sacramento, then capital corridor trains to Richmond Bart, then wherever you need to be in The Bay. Good books are key.

[huck4bucks]

Here's a better idea. For $500M, you can buy over 70,000 electric Segways (even the off-road X2 version for the snow) AND have enough to build charging stations around the Lake. Every tourist that jumps out of their gas-guzzling SUV land yacht can pick one up at any corner and drive them around all weekend free of charge. Return them on Sunday afternoon before they all go home. To accommodate the Segways, they'd be forced to build better trails, and bike paths that all the locals could benefit from during the middle of the week when nobody's around.

[whippersnapper]

...If the buses were subsidized by that amount we could have a bus every 5 minutes and never really have to wait, and transit times would be way faster (less people getting on and off each bus). And no maintenance costs on top of the $500 million. And get on or off wherever you want not at one of three or four terminals.

Do that first, prove that people will use public transport if you actually set up a good system, then think about investing the huge $$$.

Bingo. Not to mention, light _underground_ rail is only feasible in cities. Heavy underground rail works there and only under passes that block the only good routes between same, e.g. Cascade and Gotthard Tunnels.

[Toby]

we cant have a free public transit system because its not limited to one town such as whistler or aspen... which btw, aren't free. what "resort" town has free public transportation?

Pretty much every single one I've been to in Europe. Well, not free, but included with your lift pass. This winter I'll be in an area with free rail up to ~1hr from where I'm staying in a couple of directions, gondys, cable cars, busses, etc, all on the lift pass. It encompasses about half a dozen towns along the way.