The Automobile is Like a Candy Bar

Reposted from my previous blog.

I keep thinking about how the Automobile is driving america mad. It seems to me like it's the epitome of personal choice and Conservatism vs. Liberalism or Progressivism or whatever you want to call either of the two. But to me American is to Car like Kid is to Candy Bar. How does that work out you ask? Well when we are younger we are taught the food pyrimid. And we are also taught about the food groups of which you have to have portions of each to make up a balanced meal. Well in order to have a balanced city we have to have all the transportation types and like food groups, too much of one thing could be bad. Enter the car. We have so much car that eventually cities are going to have heart attacks. The congestion will be so great and there will be little people can do to fix it. Thats why we need to go on a diet now. I don't really believe in diets, mostly cause i ran in college and know that most people are really lazy and i'll admit i'm an elitist in that respect. But in order to get fit you need to change lifestyle, not just not eat for a few days then binge. But everyone knows that to lose weight you have to take in less calories than you expend during the day. That means excercise and for cities, they have to stop building roads and work out a little. Build up the infrastructure like you would your body. Too many roads is akin to getting fat and not putting in the transit infrastructure is like saying your going to the gym but you're not. They are just wasting your time while you watch TV. I guess traffic is like TV. Staring into space wasting money and brain cells. Don't get me wrong though, i love TV and I love sugar based candy bars. And when I was little I surely thought that life would be grand if i could have them for every meal. But a few Halloween's later we all learn that too much candy can lead to bad bad things. O'Toole, Cox and road only folks are basically telling everyone to get on Atkins. Sure you can eat bacon for every meal but you're heart might explode in the process. Buses, Trains, Bikes, Walking, Cars...they are all part of a healthy city.

The Mobility Myth

Richard Layman over at Rebuilding Place in the Urban Space discusses the interesting comments from the Washington Post editorial board on reducing congestion. Fred Hiatt of the Post states wrongly of course that we can build our way out of congestion and that we can never fix it is a myth. But the real myth Layman says is: "anyone who wants to can drive a car whenever they want and that the roads to accommodate them can be easily provided." He's right. We shouldn't be building to accommodate free flow whenever people need to use the roads. There are certain times a day when of course everyone is going from one place to another.

Mr. Layman also brings about the following Private Mobility Myth from Bacon's Rebellion Blog

Regardless of where they live, work, seek services and participate in leisure activities, citizens believe that it is physically possible for the government to build a roadway system that allows them to drive wherever they want to, whenever they want to go there and arrive in a timely and safe manner.

The Private-Vehicle Mobility Myth helps parents convince themselves that the house with the “big yard” may be a long way from where the jobs, services, recreation and amenities are now, but that will change. Politicians reinforce the myth by continuing to promise that “soon” they will improve the roads and the big yard owners will be able to get to wherever quickly.

More Milwaukee and a Sane Commentary

As I've stated before, the crazy folks in Milwaukee and elsewhere (Villains like O'Toole and Cox) believe that transit is for the poor. They think that if the economy was better everyone would be able to drive. Well the editorial staff of the local newspaper isn't buying it and it shows. After printing numerous positive letters to the editor and listening to the opposition, they've had enough.

This'll be a stunning statement here, he said, accurately. "I want to have a system that serves the needs of people who are dependent on mass transit. But ideally, I'd like to build an economy in this county and this city that means that fewer people are dependent on mass transit."In other words, transit is welfare, which government provides for the poor souls who lack cars. Transit's also a zero-sum game, in which the middle class benefits only at the expense of the needy. Transit wasn't always welfare. The middle class and the poor rode the streetcars of yore shoulder to shoulder. In other cities - Minneapolis-St. Paul being a recent example - light rail has proved to be one way to return to those days.

Just fighting the good fight. Props to the Journal Sentinel for figuring it out.

The Deja Vu and SAFETEA LU

Does this sound familiar?

To make matters worse, the 1952 rollover legislation actually curtailed the ability of urban projects to qualify for federal aid. In these circumstances, just as before World War II, the states responded by borrowing for streets, roads and highways. Between 1952 and 1955, the total amount of such debt exploded, from $5.8 billion in 1952 to $10.1 billion by the end of 1955 (about $75 billion in today dollars).

Any road warriors want to talk about free markets still? I could go on all year with this stuff. 20th Century Sprawl

An Inconvenient Truth

...is that the Subway Station that serves the theater where the Oscar's were held was closed for the Oscar's.

Yes He Takes the Subway

In reading a Rolling Stone piece about my favorite newscaster and former Sportcenter great Keith Olbermann, it is revealed that yes, he takes the subway to work. The reason? "It makes me feel like a human being." he says. I agree.

Milwaukee Folks Are Thinking

Lately I've been seeing a healthy amount of crazy libertarians and anti-transit activists gracing the pages of Milwaukee Newspapers. Of course my thought that all people in that city might be like that was proved wrong by a slew of letters to the editor in which most supported the Mayor's new transportation plan. At least some people get it.

They Don't Really Care About Us

In the next few weeks I'm going to be quoting and commenting on clips from the book 2oth Century Sprawl. The following quote is interesting because it shows that all along the roads movement hasn't cared about urban mobility but rather just treating urban areas as a nuisance. Thomas MacDonald, head of the Bureau of Public Roads, was a huge proponent of the Federal Highway System. However in order to get them built he needed the traffic counts from urban areas. In promising congestion alleviation it would get a lot of political support that was needed to build the system. MacDonald's report, Interregional Highways was the basis for the 1944 Federal Aid Highway Act that created the Federal Highway System, needed the urban areas to buy in. But the following says it all...

In another section of the report, MacDonald acknowledged with surprising candor that the urban components of the system were not designed to alleviate urban congestion, except to the extent that they would provide relieve to those motorists for whom the city was an inconvenient obstruction.

That's how people think of the city today as well. While Rick Perry in Texas believes that the TransTexas Corridor will alleviate congestion, that is not his want at all. He just wants the political support from urban areas.

So even the King of Roads acknowledged that the Interstate Highway System was not built to alleviate urban congestion, so why do we continue to listen to people who want to build more and more and more roads to solve congestion? They just want to avoid the city all together. We also know that because of Highway Federalism that most of the money collected from gas taxes in Urban Areas does not go into urban projects. It's redistributed around the state in which that region is a part. This is the problem with our funding system, so why don't we hear more about it?

Culbertson Gets Catcalls and Boos

The Houston Chronicle reports today that Congressman Evil got Booed at a light rail meeting last night.

When Culberson said that "97 percent of residents on or near Richmond oppose" a light rail line there, the audience of about 200 erupted in "boos" and catcalls.

That's what happens when you lie straight to people's faces about things. Hiding behind people with familiar viewpoints in public settings and writing op-eds that make sense to no one but yourself make one believe that they are always right. However we learned last night that folks who live on Richmond that want the rail are fed up with Culbertson's crap, and showed it. Way to go!

Section 5309 New Starts

So the 2008 Funding for New Starts projects came out. Guess what, the small starts program gives bus projects a nod. What a waste of money. These are projects that the transit agencies should do themselves. So called rapid buses that only have signal pre-emption and nextbus timing technology should not be allowed under fixed guideway. The reason is because there is no fixed guideway.

Another interesting thing is the waste of money that came up is the Harford Busway. They could have built light rail for less and more of it. $50 million a mile for grade separated BRT is ridiculous. They are going to prove that if you're going to build BRT, you might as well build LRT because you'll get more out of it and at a lower operating cost.