Centraal Station
February 22nd, 2006
This is on the main train station in Amsterdam. Train station. The U.S., with our addiction to oil (and apparently presidents who love to service their equally addicted to profits oil company pimps) could give a shit about our train stations. Oh sure, we’ve got the odd crap modern art adorning a few places (I’m excusing the MUNI metro stations in San Francisco, at least the few in the Financial District) but I believe the U.S. is too young to care as a country. We hate you naughty rail travel!
I don’t understand what’s up with the protective wire you might see on the sculpture. There is major construction going on in front of the station, but could it be vandal protection? Protecting pedestrians from falling sculpt?
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:34 am
Did I get here too late to say anything about the pigeons?!?
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:40 am
So I’m not sure I understand the purpose of the chicken wire yet.
Public transportation isn’t just for Europeans. When I lived in South America, you could catch a bus on practically every corner in town, and they came about every five minutes.
Of course you had to worry about the bottom of the bus falling out from under you because they were so old, and they packed you so tight that accidental pregnancies seemed like a possible risk.
I think Las Vegas has the right idea. Let people be adults. Collect the money. Businesses build free trams and offer shuttles between hotels. Collect more money. Everyone wins.
February 23rd, 2006 at 9:45 am
P.S. On the addiction to oil thing, don’t you own an SUV?
Just sayin…
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:04 am
“Exxon’s fourth-quarter earnings, at $8.42 billion, represented the highest quarterly income ever reported by an American firm.”
Why no mass transit in America? Because we have to subsidize the poor oil companies whose resources are running out, of course.
(Be careful. You don’t want to delve into this topic too deeply. Harry Whittington only made a passing remark about oil profits and the VP shot him. Just saying.)
February 23rd, 2006 at 11:32 am
I own a six cylinder SUV. I am addicted to oil.
If a manufacturer offered a better gas mileage SUV or a hybrid SUV, I’d be all over it. I think consumers in general are all over hybrids. The manufacturers can’t make them fast enough.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:03 pm
Just keeping you on your toes. Don’t get me wrong. I owned the same SUV, only supercharged. I liked it because it burnt the gas *faster*.
I opted for the much cheaper Honda Civic, but more out of cost concerns for the car itself than any concern for fuel economy. Although I’d hate to be filling that tank at today’s prices.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:30 pm
I have a short commute… And EHL, I commuted with nearly the same Civic as you. We’ve had the truck for almost four years and it hasn’t even topped 40,000 miles. I’d say we fill it up 1.5 times a month.
February 23rd, 2006 at 12:44 pm
Ditto Grand Central in NYC. Since the restoration it is breathtaking. (They left a little spot of the ceiling unrestored so you can see how friggin’ dirty it was.)
The mesh wire is slightly more animal-friendly than the metal spikes people put on their brownstone lintels to keep pigeons off. Poor (hideous, filthy, awful) unsuspecting pigeons get an ass-full on that stuff.
February 23rd, 2006 at 7:29 pm
After living in Paris and seeing some of the creative metro stops there, I will say that many in the U.S. are rather bland. Though I do have to say that Paris had a few yucky stations, too.
It looks like things might be beautificatin’ here in St. Louis, though. Our ONE metrolink line is working with a group called Arts In Transit (http://www.artsintransit.org) to make travel spaces more appealing. Now if we could only get more people here to actually care about art…
February 24th, 2006 at 1:51 am
Note: Ford is making a hybrid Escape… 36 city/31 hwy mpg!
February 25th, 2006 at 1:17 am
I love train travel here in Germany! I live 30 minutes from the town of Oldenburg and a little farther from Bremen. When I want to go shopping or to a concert and don’t want to fight for a parking space, then I take the train in. It’s heaven. However, driving on the autobahn here can give you a heart attack, so somethings in the States are better. As for the gas milage, my husband’s Audi (it’s a domestic car here) gets around 50 mpg. And the car was about as expensive as the Toyota I drove in the States.
February 26th, 2006 at 11:17 am
Most major train stations here in the UK - and all the European countries I’ve been to - are just as beautiful as that pic. Rail travel is a huge industry here, and I myself travel by train to/from work every day…although it costs me just as much as running a car (I can’t drive yet) so it’s not a ‘cheaper’ option for commuter peak-time travel.
Btw is 31mpg considered good in Canada/US?? Our average on a mid-sized car here is 39mpg, and the hybrids do about 70mpg. When we rented a Pontiac in Orlando it only did about 16mpg, eek…
March 3rd, 2006 at 12:55 pm
Birda, birds, birds!!! That is what the wire is for.
Come to NYC!!! There is a lot of nice, old, architecture, especially in Grand Central Station! There are other lovely buildings and places in NY that have wonderful sculpture and amazing beauty! You have to give yourself enough time to see some stuff though. A nice long weekend or a little more.
-Linda