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Discovering Rome’s Attractions and Its Transportation System
Rome, the eternal city, with magnificent monuments to see,- the Forum, Coliseum, Castel Sant’Angelo, Vatican, Pantheon, Trevi Fountain, and Spanish Steps. There are many ways to see them, but the best way is to live like the Romans and tour the city like them, on a bicycle or as they call it the bicicletta.
This is the popular way of life in Rome and in keeping with their drive to reduce air and noise pollution. However it is not advisable to try this on a weekday, but early Sunday morning when the Romans are still slumbering, you can rent a bike and discover Rome. The Villa Borghese is an ideal place to explore on a bike. It has museums, galleries, a riding school, a grassy ampitheatre. Another great place to explore on a bike is Villa Doria Pamphili, the largest park in Rome with fountains and summer houses. The city center is closed to autos every second Sunday from May to September and this is an ideal time to bike through Rome.
Rome has many bike rental shops that can outfit you and your entire group for a reasonable sum of money. You can hire bikes by the hour or for the entire day. All you need is a drivers licence or a copy of your passport. However they do not rent out helmets. If you want to ride your own bike, you can and there are many bike repair shops in case you have a problem.
Rome Transportation
Rome has an extensive network of trains that pass through its central railway station Termini which connect it to the rest of Italy and Europe. Its second largest railway station Roma Tiburtini is being upgraded into a high speed railway.
Rome has three large airports, the Leonardo Da Vinci for commercial flights and the other two handle military and private aircrafts.
When in Rome it is advisable to keep a lot of time in hand while traveling by roads since public transportation is not very good and moreover, the roads have bottlenecks and one can be stuck in a traffic jam.
Things to see in Rome
The Colosseum or Il Colosseo to the Romans started as the Flavian Amphitheater, and could seat 50,000 spectators and ecompasses six acres. It is huge and though has seen numerous earthquakes and fires, its ruins still look grand.
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Mass Transportation Efficiencies and Price Per Rider Theories
Having redundancies and today’s technologies in transportation we have protected the system for nearly any eventuality. Today in California, the BART train tram system is trying to figure out how to continue with mounting costs and California’s financial debacle. The idea to fix this problem has been pondered and they have come to the conclusion they need to raise fees in order to save it.
This is linear in thought and sure to destroy the integrity of confidence with the riders and patrons. Although with rider ship down due to less jobs in Silicon Valley, East Bay and in San Francisco raising fees to cover costs will mean even less riders, as a matter of fact when you surpass the cost that the average person is willing to forgo that unit of trade we call a “Dollar” for the opportunity to spend it somewhere else, there is a hyperbolic curve of people willing to continue to participate with the voting of that dollar. Simple supply and demand comes into play. With the Bay Area in California losing population and jobs there will need to be some restructuring. The BART system is one of the finest in the world, with tunnels under the bay, huge stations, which can handle huge volumes, parking and easy access, as well as a network of private shuttle services, corporate shuttles, city buses, taxi cabs, trolleys, CalTrain, Amtrak, Greyhound and private carriers with matching synchronized schedules. But when the economies of scale cannot be supported in times of a weak economy we need to figure out how we can lower costs and go for the volume needed. Even as the Bay Area continues to recover this will not guarantee more rider ship. The biggest help has been gasoline and fuel prices making it more feasible compared to driving costs, but still remember if you want more riders and conservation you must lower prices and go for economies of scale.
Water companies ask us to conserve and then raise our rates because they have fixed costs and charge per unit used, this of course does not mean we should not conserve water only that the incentives to do so do not take into consideration the innate characteristics of mankind. Obviously we should conserve water because it is a finite resource in a given drought year. As new systems are built they will need ways to conserve costs and it’s finite capacity.
The number of commuters traveling into NYC is only 1% higher than in 2000 than it was in 1990 as per the Census Study done by the transportation department. Now a new super system which will be even higher tech than the BART system is being built in New Jersey by the same company, it will be a world class system, state of the art. We need to figure out ways to save money on these systems through operational efficiencies; not simply raising fees. Think about it.
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Life on Tracks and Roads – An Overview of Public Transportation Systems
Public transportation plays an important role in day to day life of a common man. More than 50% of people in India use public transportation for reaching their destinations. I was very much impressed by the transportation facilities of Chennai. The government of Tamil Nadu plays a major role in this area. It gives importance for the comfort of the public by providing different means of reliable and cheap transport. It is a very big city with a population of lakhs of people. Accessing the nook and corner of Chennai at any time of a day is very easy with the well established suburban trains and road transport system.
Suburban trains are used as a medium for transport by thousands of people daily. The punctuality and frequency maintained by suburban trains are highly appreciable. The timings of the train are planned according to the requirement. There are numerous trains within every 5 minutes during the peak hours, i.e.; morning and evening, when most people travel. All major locations are connected through suburban tracks and these trains are also very cheap and affordable to common man. The trains also have separate first class compartment which have good seating facility at a little higher rate. I made a mistake once while travelling on a suburban train with one of my friends. We were traveling in the suburban train for the first time and also we were new to the city. We took the tickets for ordinary compartment and accidentally went in to first class without noticing it. Actually we didn’t know that such separate class was existed. After travelling nearly half of the way the ticket examiner came to examine the tickets. We just showed him the tickets without knowing that we were in the wrong compartment. He understood that we came in by mistake. He explained to us that the ticket we took was not for the first class. We were shocked to hear that the fine was more than 250 rupees for one person. But he was a very nice person. He was kind enough that he took the fine for only a single person.
Another major mode of public transport is the Buses from the Transport Corporation of Chennai. Buses are accessible to all the parts of the city where the trains cannot go. Buses connecting to various locations also play a vital role in day to day life. The bus routes are identified by numbers or codes which help people who are not familiar with the regional language. Buses also have various classes ranging from ordinary, deluxe, Volvo and so on with different comfort zones. Various tariffs are implemented for different people to choose travel facility as per the thickness of their wallets. Share autos also do remarkable service for transportation. You can choose share autos for short distance travel. You can also avail the facilities of call taxi at a very reasonable rate.
Autos are also a medium for public transport chosen by many people. But it is very expensive. The reason for this is that the government does not have any control over the charges imposed by these autos. As there is a huge amount to be spent for availing the transport permit for autos, the drivers are charging too high to recover that amount. The interesting fact I noticed is that their charges always ends with a zero. They do not care about the meter readings or they don’t set the meters. I do not know why the government or the transport authority is maintaining silence in this matter.
The government of Tamil Nadu has set an example to other states by controlling the fares of transportation. The effort of the government to control the transport cost against the frequent rise in fuel prices is much appreciable. It has not raised the bus fares for the last 8 years. Flyovers are constructed in most of the areas which makes travelling easy through these roads. The conditions of the road are maintained in a well appreciable manner which reduces the accidents and the wideness of the roads wipes out the anticipated traffic jams. The role of domestic air transport is also playing a key role in meeting the day to day requirements of many people. It is common to see people travelling by domestic air to various cities and come back the same day after completing their job. To add with, the government has started extending the metro rail to improve the transport facility even better.