Ciao. I am dbev, I'm Italian, unemployed, two degrees one of which is British, overall I'm a moron. I can't believe how many mistakes I made in my life. Like many other people, I had a passion for cars when I was younger, a passion that faded away. I have been believing for a long time that the right to private mobility exists and that it is a duty of the State to allow its citizens to reach easily wherever they need to, supplying public means of transportations, without forcing them to buy a car. The use of a private car should be reduced to conscious moments of amusement and I believe that historical cars follow this principle. Among US cars, I remember with pleasure those that I watched in 1970s TV series with which we (sons of the 70s) grew up. I hope to have a long stay here
Who knows why but some people think that I am a spammer. As a matter of fact, I am not. If we're done with this, let's please go on.
My quick observation is that most of us own big stationwagons and you introduced yourself with information and thoughts on regulations and public transportation. Not something that we hobbyists pay much attention to. Yes, some of us are concerned about fuel economy and the environment and even update our engines to be more efficient and cleaner, but we are automotive hobbyists. If you went to a clockmaker's website and started telling him that a cheap chinese electronic quartz system is more accurate, I think you'd be treated likewise. So 'going on', what are your hobby plans? Italians have always been known and respected for their sports cars and streamlined designs. Are you planning to restore a car or develop a history book on them, or build model cars? In short why do stationwagons attract your attention? Bienvenue, Bienvenido and Welcome. My Italian is a little rusty.
Thanks for replying. Well, maybe I didn't make myself clear enough. Let me try again: I like 1970s US cars because they remember me my childhood, when I was used to watch many US TV series (Starsky&Hutch, A-Team, Rockford, and so on...). Introductions should give some information about a person, I tried to be concise. Buying and using a car shouldn't be a matter of constraint but a matter of choice. Citizens are paying taxes and it's their right to have public transportation means to go wherever they want and when they want. Cars' purchase and use should be conscious and their use should be residual, i.e. only when a person makes the choice to buy and use it. Historical cars (and station wagons particularly) are, in my opinion, the best for this sort of conscious amusement, i.e. I could everywhere by public transportation and the use my historical station wagon in my free time. I posted one thread in the general forum, asking for help in completing my personal database. When I'll have the money, I'd really like to buy one of those full-size station wagons, and I'd like to have more information. In Italian, the word for Welcome is: Benvenuto. And I could tell you: Bentrovato (Well met)
DBEV. There are certainly many American cars in Europe so when you are ready I am sure you will find one. I was going to welcome you earlier today but my internet connection was bad. Reading things on this site and looking at the gallery will keep you busy for many hours.
Now I see the problem. Translation. Public Highways, not Transportation. Here public transportation means bus or subway or train. Residual? That sort of means like whatever is left over. I think you're trying to say permanent. Ok, let's move on. You're not a spammer, and whatever you are using for translation software is not very good. OK? Gracie for the Benvenuto and Bentrovato. In Spanish (I'm originally French Canadian with a complete Bilingual education, married to a Mexican wife (Spanish). Vato in Spanish, means young man or chap. trovato in Latin used to mean treasure or a "good find". Anyway, now we know that we'll need to make adjustments in understanding your posts and comments. Once again... Cars and especially Stationwagons are the universal language here. You might enjoy this international/global car links website with over 110,000 links: http://www.automotive-links.com/ind/ind.htm And this one about the historical car makers: http://www.coachbuilt.com/ Here's a couple of European sites with information about North American cars and links to European car hobbyist sites: http://www.lov2xlr8.no/broch1.html http://www.americanautomags.com/ This is a Russian site with great pictures of Concept cars from all over the world. I don't know if they have any of the text in Italian, but the pictures are very nice: http://www.carstyling.ru/classic/ This is in Mexico: http://www.autoclasico.com.mx/site/default.aspx?p=37&fcte=11 This is an Antique Car Club in Quebec, a Province in Canada. http://www.vaq.qc.ca/ Hope that helps with your database.
So let's not jump to conclusions FT. I didn't notice anything in the post that suggested it was spam. There was just too much specific information. So let me say and we appreciate your enthusiasm for our hobby!
I forgot to mention that Civitanove Marche is a gorgeous east coast city. It looks like a wonderful place to live. The WWW is a wonderful resource. I have only visited Naples, Italy and Palermo, Cicily in years past. I think Italy would be a great place to drive around and visit in a classic car especially in the summer months. Good food, good wine and freindly people.
Dear Norman, I'm not using a software, I write what I think and what I think is written above. By the way, I hold two degrees, one of which is British. My written English may be atypical (and I may be a bit rusty), but I've lived three years in the UK and I try to review what I write before posting. Public transportation is exactly represented by trains, light trains, underground trains, metros, buses and coaches. I believe that, as a citizens, I have the right not to buy a car if I don't want to and the right to be taken where I need to go for work or for health reasons or to use a public office. Residual means that, when I'm done with job, health, public offices, and so forth, I can spend my time driving my historical station wagon. Thanks everybody for your greetings.
Welcome to our forum, dbev. 'Public Transportation' is a very diverse topic in the U.S. (and maybe Canada, too). I liken it to a 'blind man describing an elephant - everyone's opinion is colored by the environment they live in, and there's no single solution for all areas. For instance, a public transportation system for the somewhat shall town I live in now (70,000 or so, rural outside of the city limits) wouldn't work where I lived up to November last year - he heart of Orange County, California - a huge, spread out city metropolis with over 3 million people. ( Basically, the combined Los Angeles / Orange County area is one giant city) People also may have to be 'coaxed' into using public transportation as well, and if you really want to encourage more effective usage (increase ridership), those in charge of the infrastructure have to encourage people to move inward, closer to the city center (which is opposite of what generally happens, at least in suburban America. Your thoughts? Marshall
You mention, you lost your passion for cars... The duty of the state..... Forcing them to buy a car... Private car, conecious momets..... , did'nt come accross like a car guy Sorry if I offeneded, moving on.....
I forgot to reply. It's Sicilia then Sicily. Italy is the worst place in the world for driving, unless you want to get stuck in hours-long queues. In rush hours, in Rome, the average speed is the same of mules! For 2 kms you may need 1 hour. And Civitanova, basically a small town with 40 000 people, is no different.
Managing a State and a public transportation system is not a task for lay people, like me for example. I can tell you two or three things. Rome: the trend in Rome is crazy. Rents and prices of houses sky-rocketed firstly in the city centre, and this forced "normal" people to relocate to the "first peripherial belt", then rents/prices increased in this "first peripherial belt" and people were forced to relocate to a "second peripherial belt" and then again to a "third peripherial belt" and then outside of the GRA - Grande Raccordo Anulare. This created and creates biblical exoduses at each rush hour. Then, the last city administration had the fantastic idea of creating three "dormitory cities" outside the GRA, in the north, east, and south. This worsened the situation to the nth power: people live at 40/50 kms from their job and they need 2 hours ore more to get there. And obviously, these developments were planned without thinking that, even if you can bring public transportation means there, it is impossible (as experts say) to move effectively that amount of people on such long distances every day, twice a day. Paris: when a development of the city is planned, the first thing they do is to assure that this new neighbourhoods/areas have everything people need within the neighbourhood/area itself. In other words, they are not only dormitory but places where people have shops, newsagents, bars, pizza shops (pizzerie), restaurants... this means also jobs... and so forth. Then, they ask the private constructors to participate in the cost of building underground lines and stations, bus stops and similar. Then, one half on the new houses built by these private constructors become property of the city that gives them to people in need. Berlin: same as Paris, with an addition. No virgin land can be used for developments. In Germany, cities have a clear end, then there's the countryside. The result is: 100 square meters apartment in Rome city centre - rent 5 000 or more euros per month. 100 square meters apartment in Berlin city centre - rent 7 00 euros per month. People are not forced to relocate, but they may choose to do so. Therefore, my point is: citizens (and with the word citizen I mean a very precise thing) have the right to choose. And is the principal duty of a State to give people the right to choose and, obviously, to take countermeasures if the decision is impacting negatively the lives of other people. And, to me it's also obvious that a nice historical station wagons (or car generally) can be used for conscious amusement outside of the framework I tried to depict above. I hope that I have been clear enough. To everybody, I didn't take any offence and I'm sure that no offence was meant. It's only a matter of setting a common cultural ground.
