They quote Randall O'Toole: === “Can you imagine trying to write a transit plan for today 20 years ago,” Mr. O'Toole asks, “when no one had heard of the Internet, and all the ramifications of the Internet? Yet we see governments all the time, sitting down and writing 20-, 30- and 50-year plans for their cities – which is totally absurd.” ===
Reply number one: sure, lets have no plans instead! Despite the fact that any major construction project -- highways included -- requires a ten-plus-year plan to build.
Reply number two: sure, we can't plan transportation for today twenty years ago, any more than we can plan the next twenty years' worth of transportation today. After all all those buses you see running about the cities today -- you know, cities, those places Randall refuses to live to begin with but thinks he's such an expert on -- they don't run anywhere near where they ran ten years ago. Or twenty years ago. Or fifty years ago. Or 75 years ago when there were streetcar tracks under the pavement they're on. Nooooo... nowhere near!
I have problems with some of our transit decisions, including when people go all wonky and weak in the knees for any given project, just cause it looks cool and is in their neighborhood. But Randall's comments are nothing more than libertarian bull-pucky.
I wish their was a list of people that totally opposed public transit so that we can keep track of it for when gas is $10/g and kick them off the bus for when they need to ride it.
4 comments:
They quote Randall O'Toole:
===
“Can you imagine trying to write a transit plan for today 20 years ago,” Mr. O'Toole asks, “when no one had heard of the Internet, and all the ramifications of the Internet? Yet we see governments all the time, sitting down and writing 20-, 30- and 50-year plans for their cities – which is totally absurd.”
===
Reply number one: sure, lets have no plans instead! Despite the fact that any major construction project -- highways included -- requires a ten-plus-year plan to build.
Reply number two: sure, we can't plan transportation for today twenty years ago, any more than we can plan the next twenty years' worth of transportation today. After all all those buses you see running about the cities today -- you know, cities, those places Randall refuses to live to begin with but thinks he's such an expert on -- they don't run anywhere near where they ran ten years ago. Or twenty years ago. Or fifty years ago. Or 75 years ago when there were streetcar tracks under the pavement they're on. Nooooo... nowhere near!
I have problems with some of our transit decisions, including when people go all wonky and weak in the knees for any given project, just cause it looks cool and is in their neighborhood. But Randall's comments are nothing more than libertarian bull-pucky.
I wish their was a list of people that totally opposed public transit so that we can keep track of it for when gas is $10/g and kick them off the bus for when they need to ride it.
yeah he drives me nuts too. especially the vulgar libertarianism. perhaps pitch is right, these guys need to be on a list.
God! This guy is everywhere! The problem is, not too many people have heard of Mr O'toole in Canada, and might actually believe his numbers.
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