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Index of Subjects Hi All, As with most matters you start from the local context and adapt or not as applicable. Let me first give an example of then and now. In about 1952 a friend and I decided to take a week off and go to the Magdalene Islands. Working out a schedule to make connections was a snap because travel by public transit as opposed to car was the norm then. Schedules were designed so bus/train or bus/bus schedules matched so you did not gets stranded in Lesser Nowhere for a night. The bus system not only carried passengers but packages and would stop anywhere to take on or let off passengers. It was user friendly and it worked very well. But only for those who lived on RR1 in the Valley. Those who lived on side roads had to arrange to get to RR1 as best they could. Turning to Saskatchewan yes you are spread out and the idea that one size fits does not apply. But places like Saskatchewan, where you can watch your dog running away from home for three successive days, are taylor made for trains which never stop. Nearly all of the energy required to move a train on level ground is to gain momentum. So one would have small off-on cars so those getting off would go back to the off pod, be diverted to a siding and those getting on (or an empty pod) would simultaneously go out and hook onto the train. When some end of line is reached you do not need to stop the train. You offload a pod onto a siding for those who wish to continue and take on a pod for those going back the other way. And sure you need two sets of tracks. If all highways were one way only nothing would work. And yes, unless you live next to an on/off siding you have to reach one in some way. And the best solution again would depend upon details. Some adjustments might be inconvenient but having an earth on which nothing can live is the ultimate inconvenience. If runaway climate change hits then there will be a second invasion of North America. This invasion will involve well armed climate migrants looking for a place to survive. Right now in Nova Scotia it is almost impossible to own a gun. You may have one locked up in several ways. But you do not really own free use of it. I own land but I can not sight in my rifle on it. I must become a member of a shooting range, phone the RCMP whenever I intend to take a firearm there.... We are sitting ducks and if we had an invasion our armed forces would be told to change into civies and hide. As they were when one discouraged drug addict, who just wanted to go back home to his relatives, was denied permission to leave Canada and decided to commit suicide by police. The first step which is needed to formulate sound policy is to abandon First Past the Post (AKA government by self-serving nomads) and move to Proportional Representation of some kind. With that done the rest will follow. Before closing I will draw on a passage from the KGV (Proverbs perhaps) "When there is a Lion in the streets the fool foldeth his hands". We should not act like fools. YT, DW, Kentville On 3/29/2020 10:18 PM, Lois Codling wrote: > Hi Dave, > > My husband is from Sask., and this is his comment: > "What Dave proposes is easy to do in Europe, where distances are short > and population dense. What kind of public transit helps a Saskatchewan > farmer whose nearest neighbours are about a mile away?" > > Even here, we are about 1/2 hr. from the Halifax hospitals, and we > spent over 6 yrs. driving my father there for dialysis 3 times a > week. Public transport was not an option for him, even by > Access-a-bus. Unless Canadians live in a large city I think we do > need our cars and thus our roads, though I have a lot of sympathy for > your good reasons for doing away with highways. > > Lois Codling > L. Sackville > > On 3/29/2020 12:26 PM, David Webster wrote: >> Hi Burkhard & All, >> >> You open the door to some important topics. >> >> While the rapid response to Covid-19, in most jurisdictions, >> shows that governments can respond to an 'imminent hanging', Covid-19 >> is a Sunday School picnic compared to the consequences of run-away >> Climate Change. It has been obvious for at least 60 years that >> Climate Change was the only real problem the world faces but action >> has been limited to vague promises to meet targets by some future >> date. Many European countries have acted responsibly but on a per >> capita basis Canada and the USA are slackers. >> >> And the solution is self evident; replace 90% of auto and truck >> traffic with efficient public transit and rail respectively. The big >> question is--- How does one convince a corruption of cheerful liars, >> AKA politicians, to act responsibly ? >> >> And this high volume of vehicle traffic, in addition to the >> release of fossil carbon, has a huge impact on the natural world; >> directly and indirectly. Brooklyn St. in Kentville runs West from >> Cornwallis St. along the North side of the Cornwallis meadow. I often >> have walked along this road over some 50 years. Road kill Painted >> Turtle were fairly common there shortly west of the Hospital road >> until about 2000 (guess); none since. So I have concluded that the >> local PT colony has been exterminated. >> >> Small man-made barriers are huge for small animals. A highway cut >> in that same area has generated a Toad barrier. They can not get >> where they think they must go. Some decades ago a grader had >> generated a ridge of gravel, about a foot high, in the middle of the >> rail trail. I watched a fair sized Garter Snake attempting to cross >> that; not possible. >> >> If small changes have such impacts one should contemplate the >> enormous impact of the 100 series highways which have fragmented the >> landscape into untold numbers of isolated shards. >> >> The typical back country road had no ditches to speak of until >> urban sprawl forced 'improvements', so in spring there was a necklace >> of isolated pools each with numerous tadpoles; which in turn became >> frogs or toads. Back about 1942-50 when I helped mow swails, which >> were