In this new religion, taking the bus, riding a bike, or walking instead of driving are pious good works. And there is no surmounting the religion’s faith in solving transportation problems by addressing every mode of transit but what most people actually use to get from point A to point B.
During Idaho’s last legislative session, the legislature was presented with information that our existing highways and bridges were in disrepair. One State Senate Democrat focused on the “need” for bike lanes even in rural areas, where riding a bicycle is not an option for most because of the distance involved. Yes, I’m sure there are some people that ride their bicycles in Challis (pop: 909) but does it really make sense to spend the money?
It seems that part of the faith is that these options — even if barely used — are good in and of themselves.
Of course, empty bike lanes are a waste of money. Empty buses are a waste of money and fuel. In the private sector, a company whose service was as unpopular as mass transit would carefully evaluate the service and the marketing, and figure out why people don’t ride.
Not so much with the federal government. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood admitted at the National Press Club recently, regarding the administration’s policies: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars.”
And here’s some more of this fascistic foolishness from the new Transportation Secretary:
The conservative columnist George Will recently denounced you as the “secretary of behavior modification,” in reference to your plan to have Americans give up cars.
When George came over here for lunch, I could tell from the tone of our conversation that he wasn’t particularly keen on what we were trying to promote here.You first were elected to Congress out of Peoria, Ill., as part of the so-called Republican revolution.
I came to Congress in 1994. I had no idea I was going to be a part of the majority party.Now you’re in the minority.
I’m in the majority.But aren’t you a Republican?
I am. But I’m a part of the Obama team. And they’re the majority party.
Does that make for any awkwardness with your fellow Republicans?
Not one bit. I’ve had a lot of Republicans calling me asking me how they can get some of the stimulus money and how they can get their projects funded.…But if Americans increasingly get around by rail, bus and bicycle, as you’ve planned, who will be buying cars in the future?
I think everybody will have an automobile. I think it’s amazing in America when you drive around and look at new homes that are being built, there are three-car garages. I don’t think you’re going to see families with three cars. I think you’re going to see families with one car, possibly two.
We will change our lifestyles to conform with the state religion of our moral betters, regardless of the economic madness of it, or the impact on our personal freedom.
[Update a couple minutes later]
And then there’s this:
It is a six-mile stretch of guardrail near a manufactured lake in a desolate patch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. There’s little reason for anyone to visit. Weeds are overgrown; the lake bed is virtually dry.
Yet repairing the guardrail is on a list of projects developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to tap into President Obama’s $787-billion economic stimulus program.
The country’s in the very best of hands.
We will change our lifestyles to conform with the state religion of our moral betters, regardless of the economic madness of it, or the impact on our personal freedom.
Your ability to leap to conclusions not supported by the actual data is astounding. And you have the rank hypocrisy to say other people lack comprehension skills.
We will change our lifestyles to conform with the state religion of our moral betters, regardless of the economic madness of it, or the impact on our personal freedom.
You left out the part where our moral betters will still be able to travel to exotic and exclusive places for their meetings on how next to plan our lives, and that they will be exempt from those plans because they would prevent them from being better than the rest of us. “It’s good to be the state planners for the king.”
Or to update what one of the less reputable pontiffs was attributed to have said about the papacy back in the 1300s, “Now that we have the federal government, let us enjoy it.”
David, what part of “coerce people out of their cars” do you not understand? Are you unfamiliar with the meaning of the word “coerce”?
Not at all – but it’s not relevent in the context unless you deal with the falacy at the heart of the argument.
When did personal freedom get equated with cars?
> When did personal freedom get equated with cars?
Cars aren’t the only way to get mobility, but they’re an effective one. They’re superior to bikes for long distances (in reasonable time) and they’re more convenient than buses.
When did personal freedom get equated with cars?
Since the day they were invented.
DaveOn was getting a challenge from Jim for most value-subtracting commenter, but he noses back into the lead.
Something that *would* have surprised me, had I not already understood “liberal” to mean “sheep-like” around here is this:
King County (Washington State, named after Rufus King, former Vice President) took a mail-in poll of preferences regarding road funding.
The plurality winner: Tax based on miles driven within the county. The obvious implication to me was that the county would have to be able to track the miles one drives, where, and when. That observation was a very novel one for the people I discussed it with. The implications of the state’s intrusion into their lives hadn’t occurred to them.
*sigh*
The implications of the state’s intrusion into their lives hadn’t occurred to them.
You can make that statement on a wide range of issues. Nearly 800,000 people had to call the federal hotline because of the change over to digital TV. This after how many years of advanced warning?
My point isn’t that people are stupid, it’s that if you want a society that values freedom then you’d better have an educational system that is grounded in it and a curriculum which stresses it from day one to the last day of school.
That is the last thing we have right now.
“When did personal freedom get equated with cars?”
Ahh, when did personal freedom get equated with the ability to make one’s own choices and decisions?
Or more simply, put how DARE someone want to choose the method of transportation they think is best for their own self interest.
No wonder we need the government to take care of us and make these tough choices for us. Just queue up and take what the State hands you, after all they’re professionals.
How in the world could those options be confused?
Odds that DaveOn doesn’t think that personal freedom is equatable with the 2nd Amendment?
I bet Dave wonders how options to choose matters that impact on one’s life are related to freedom. Doesn’t the state have the right to tell you what you shall do; where you shall live, what you shall eat in return for a hovel and some gruel?
Is there anything more idiotic than High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes? You decrease capacity at the time it is most needed, resulting in slower traffic and increased pollution. It was supposed to encourage car pooling. It hasn’t.
I’m waiting for DaveOn to reply to Jack.
I have to admit that, in a completely selfish way, I love public transportation a lot of the time. For about two years, I was able to ride the train to work – a 10 minute bus ride from the bus stop 3 blocks from my house led to the train station; a 40 minute train ride through some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the US; then a final 10 minute train ride (including time spent waiting for the bus to show up at the stop) to work. Very low stress – I could read, listen to my iPod, even (gasp!) do work. The company picked up half of the monthly cost (I’m sure they got a tax break), so it was significantly cheaper than gas, never mind car maintenance costs. And nothing gets you out of a long end-of-the-day meeting like “Whoa! Gotta go catch my train!” Ah, those were the days…
But…even when the trains were packed to SRO, they made absolutely NO economic sense. They were heavily dependent on state and federal subsidies; if they had to pay their way, the ticket price would have tripled. And there was a dearth of buses servicing train commuters – if you didn’t work within walking distance of the train stops, or along the handful of bus routes synced with the train schedule, you were SOL. If they had been private enterprise, they would have gone broke within weeks (or perhaps quickly grown more feeder bus lines to appeal to more riders – free market at work!). So now I drive my car (33 mpg average), stare at nearly-empty HOV lanes, think wistfully about the train sometimes, but more often than not revel in my freedom to choose my route to work, choose the time I leave home, and choose the time I leave work. I just have to get a little more creative with my excuses for those late afternoon meetings :-/
Your ability to leap to conclusions not supported by the actual data is astounding.
The simple two word rebuttal is “mandatory recycling”. It’s better to impinge on our freedom, waste our time sorting trash, and waste government funds to subsidize this practice than it is to simply ignore the alleged problem and just use a little more space in our landfills.
There’s also a lot of regulation, excise taxes, and other gimmicks to contribute to the general sense that you either don’t have a clue or would ignore any data we throw your way.
“Is there anything more idiotic than High Occupancy Vehicle Lanes?”
I dunno, but I would rank the current implementation of a HOV lane in Dallas along LBJ 635 as possibility one of the greatest examples of bureaucratic stupidity. Once you get on the LBJ west HOV, there are no exits to get off for another 10 miles. Most people don’t realize this and so they cut back over into the regular lanes when they see they are going to miss their exit. Only problem is the city, in order to discourage egress and entry, placed speed bumps on the dividing line between the HOV lane and regular lanes. This doesn’t stop anybody except just make them slow down to a crawl in the middle of 70 mph traffic to cut over. If you drive in the far left lane you have to be ready to slam the brakes at a moments notice because someone will all of sudden decide, “Hey, I want off the HOV lane” and then slalom through the speed bumps to get over. This usually creates a wreck at some point along the stretch of HOV at least once a day. Just this morning I sat on the freeway turned parking lot for 30 minutes because the HOV lane and 2 left lanes were shut down.
Oh, and the cops never patrol this section of HOV, ever. I would say the majority of cars are single occupant vehicles.
Roy: I’d rank driving a hybrid on the freeway a slight bit worse than the HOV lane in terms of idiocy. With the hybrid you have a low-power ICE that now has to drag around not only the weight of the vehicle structure, and the drivetrain itself (which is what small cars have always done), it now has to drag around a heavy battery pack plus another whole drivetrain which, at freeway speeds, is generally left turned off (ideally this wouldn’t happen. In practice, the electric motors lack the high-speed torque to be usable, so the ICE has to cut back in). End result is that the car burns more fuel to go the same distance at speed compared to a non-hybrid version of the same car. That’s why hybrids generally have worse highway mileage than city or combined.
> It was supposed to encourage car pooling. It hasn’t.
They do help folks carrying children get around faster.
Since when does “car that gets 33 MPG” = Hybrid?
There are plenty of non-hybrid cars that get 33 MPG on the highway, some compact, some mid-size.
Most of the imported diesel models from Europe come readily to mind…
I was going to bother to reply to some of the weird stuff posted here, then I read it again and realised that, to be frank, I didn’t need to.
Thomas: Sorry real life got in the way. Jack went off on a wonderful detour of logic but didn’t actually address the real point. It isn’t about cars.
If the issue is about CHOOSING the method by which you travel then I have no disagreement. But the reality is, for most people the choice is actually the car or nothing. If this was merely about the matter of having a choice we could probably see eye to eye. But it isn’t. The choice hasn’t existed for many people for decades in the US. Which is rather sad.
If given a choice of fighting on the traffic jams on the 520 (to cite another poster who blithers on about WA) or take a train which doesn’t sit in the Charlie Foxtrot which is the 520/floating bridge interaction, then I’d opt for the train every single time, no question.
Except I can’t. I’d have to take a bus, which sits in the same CF. So I drive my car.
Hell of a freedom there.
and just use a little more space in our landfills.
Where abouts do you live?
Because there isn’t a lot of landfill space near where I live in metropolitan Seattle.
Where I lived in West London there was none.
Although, to be fair, a lot of recyling is energy inefficient bollocks so I don’t necessarily disagree with you.