Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Giving Up the Ghost

I've been thinking a lot about this lately. I'm tired of always being on the losing end of things and have decided to switch. I'm giving up being pro rail and deciding to go with the winners in the anti-transit movement. I've taken a long hard look at all the BS rail projects I've been advocating for over the last three years of this blog and decided that really they are too expensive and don't give the flexibility that buses give. In fact, building more rail is likely to cause greater gridlock.

I'm also thinking about leaving San Francisco and it's hatred of cars. Because of its lack of zoning, I can become a developer in Houston and make tons of money building anything anywhere I want, unless there is a deed restriction of course. I'll be sure and build lots of parking and hopefully I can meet up with my friend Robert Bruegmann who has converted me to the ways of doing things right.

And can we give up on this lefty fantasy for high speed rail already? I'm tired of having to fight off people that know so much more about HSR than the experts. Especially folks in Palo Alto. They really know thier stuff. Why can't we just let them have their way and be done with it. Besides, rail is a 19th century technology.

Finally, stop making me pay for other people's transit. We subsidize the hell out of public transit and in a free market world (the United States is the best place in the world because it has a completely unfettered market) it should pay for itself. This article says everything I want to say and more but just felt like I couldn't being a good liberal and all.
But maybe the taxpayers grew tired of subsidizing a failed government-run transit system. According to the March 29 St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the St. Louis Metro system is bleeding money. It faces an operating deficit of $45 million in 2009 – expected to reach $50 million in 2010.
All transit is a failure. I'm just realizing this now but wish I would have just given in years ago. I want to be on the winning side for once. Let's stop building rail lines and start building more roads. And get those bikes and pedestrians off my street. It was designed for cars and should stay that way.

Anyways, if you believe that I would ever say any of the stuff above Happy April Fools. Hopefully you didn't get suckered again.

6 comments:

Justin said...

Those links you posted are funny!
HSR is "leftist dream"! haha! Awesome!

Matt Fisher said...

And now, I've become anti-rail. Why does Ottawa need light rail, when we've got the best rapid transit system in the world? If those places had used flexible buses as a more cost effective, low cost alternative, transit ridership would have been higher than it is now. After all, the public has no preference for trains or buses, rail is a 19th century technology, and any bus can be rapid. Buses are greener than trains and can handle greater capacities, and are as good as rail in everything. BRT is "better rapid transit".

I used to be anti-highway for the past six years and was a pessimist. But now, thanks to the unbiased authorities on urbanism, Wendell Cox and Randal O'Toole, I've been converted to an optimistic side. We can "build our way out of congestion", and people are always better off in the suburbs.

All transit is subsidized. Cars literally pay for themselves, and give people freedom and mobility. Driving a car is always the least expensive way to get around. The liberal media is lying to you, and wants you to think that suburbs and automobiles, which they are full of hatred against, are evil. Instead, it is the stupid liberals who are evil.

APRIL FOOL! All this is a joke on my part in response. I pulled a prank on my mother this morning when I tricked her into thinking that my laptop was stolen and destroyed by evil ninjas in my sleep last night. Instead, it's not, and I'm quite busy with two essays in two of my courses in university this week.

Eric said...

Well, better late than never. At least you've finally seen the light :)

david vartanoff said...

nice.

Anonymous said...

This is better than most. At least I can tell it's tongue in cheek, but other blogs have been seriously taking this too far. I mean, I enjoy reading the news.

BruceMcF said...

Saw on on Railpage Australia where a radio station had the former state Minister for Transport on talking about three new monorail systems for Sydney.

The tell there, of course, is that its a former Minister for Transport who's retired from politics ... a real infrastructure announcement would have the Premier, Deputy Premier, Minister of Transport and Minister of Infrastructure all trying to grab a piece of the spotlight.