Posted on 05/26/2009 5:42:24 AM PDT by SJackson
(CNSNews.com) - Transportation Secretary Ray Lahood told a group of reporters at the National Press Club on Thursday that he wants to “coerce people out of their cars.”
In Newsweek magazine last week, nationally syndicated columnist George Will published a piece critical of Lahood, entitled, “Ray Lahood, Transformed--Secretary of Behavior Modification.”
“He says he has joined a ‘transformational’ administration: ‘I think we can change people's behavior,’” Will reports that Lahood said over lunch.
Lahood, a former Republican congressman from Peoria, Ill., has become a champion of using the Department of Transportation and federal transportation spending to get people to take trains, busses, and ride bikes instead of driving cars.
At the National Press Club on Thursday he attempted to respond to George Will’s column and to explain his vision for using the power of government to change people’s transportation behavior and to change the nature of American residential communities.
“We want to really--and notwithstanding the fact that George Will doesn't like this idea--the idea of creating opportunities for people to get out of their cars--and we're working with the secretary of HUD, Shaun Donovan, on opportunities for housing, walking paths, biking paths,” said Lahood. “If somebody wants to ride their bike, if--to work or to the place of employment or to other places--mass transit, light rail--creating opportunities for what we call livable communities.”
The moderator of the press club event asked Lahood: “Some in the highway-supporters motorist groups have been concerned by your livability initiative. Is this an effort to make driving more torturous and to coerce people out of their cars?”
Lahood answered: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars.
“Yeah,” he continued, “I mean, look, people don't like spending an hour and a half getting to work. And people don't like spending an hour going to the grocery store. And all of you who live around here know exactly what I'm talking about. You know, the dreaded thing is to have to run an errand on a weekend around here or to try and get home at 3:00 in the afternoon or even 5:00 in the afternoon.
“Now, look, every community is not going to be a livable community. But we have to create opportunities for people that do want to use a bicycle or want to walk or want to get on a streetcar or want to ride a light rail,” said Lahood.
Lahood suggested to the reporters that George Will is the only person opposed to using the government to promote mass transit and bicycling over driving a car.
“And the only person that I've heard of that objects to this is George Will. Check out Newsweek magazine,” said Lahood.
Lahood then made a joke about the fact that some conservatives believe that the way he wants to use the Department of Transportation represents an increased government intrusion in people’s lives.
“Some conservative groups are wary of the livable communities program, saying it's an example of government intrusion into people's lives,” said the moderator. “How do you respond?”
“About everything we do around here is government intrusion in people's lives,” said Lahood. “So have at it.”
Ray LaHood is a dirtbag part of the GOP arm of the Illinois Combine, the corrupt “bipartisan” group that runs the most corrupt state in the USA. It is led by the criminal Daleys, with associates that include Rod Blagojevich, Tony Rezko, Barack Obama, and on and on. LaHood is not to be trusted, period.
Is any public transit system in the country self supporting? In KCMO, they're going to be shutting down a number of routes, and reduce the number of buses on others, because they're simply too expensive to keep going.
Mark
My bicycle went in the trash 56 years ago the day I got my drivers license.
Bicycles are foe little kids!
Last time I checked, there weren’t any streetcars out in the country 20 miles from town but perhaps with the New Order I should check again.
They can’t coerce me out of my car. I like to shop at stores where I can park right out front. I rarely go to malls for this reason.
IOW, de-populate all those red areas on the electoral map, and get everyoned herded into the blue areas.
Well, then, I guess you and your mom will just have to give up your selfish lifestyle and move into a city where you’re nearer to public transit.
You both probably don’t want to because “you don’t like to be around people who aren’t like you” (ie, you’re racist).
/libspeak
That definition pretty much describes every aspect of the liberal agenda.
I don’t have any buses or streetcars are trains that are going to pick me and my children up at my rural home, drive me 15 miles to do my shopping, load my bags, and return me home.
And when the school nurse calls and asks me to pick up a sick child - no public transportation will do that for me either.
The government also is not going to cart my kids around to their various activities - productive activities that keep them busy so they don’t wind up downtown (where the public transportation is) painting graffiti, skateboarding, drinking and smoking pot.
Amen, sister. the only public transportation in my village are the two feet on the end of our legs......rural America still exists, and we need cars and trucks.
Some please put it into its basic intent. Ok I will. This will be a method of denying you that which you take for granted. Namely, your FREEDOM as an American citizen.
There is an overworked phrase in the language today. That is “FREEDOM OF CHOICE”.
This insanity will deny YOU your freedom of choice. Your choice of what supermarket to shop at, instead of tiny stores on every corner within walking distance.
This insanity will deny you your freedom to choose where you seek employment, beyond walking and/or bike range, driving 40 miles to work because that is where you can do best for your family.
Your right to CHOOSE where to vacation..gone. Your right to drive 75 miles to visit the grandchildren..gone. Your right to drive through this great country..gone. Your right to see the kids 100 miles away at college..gone.
The ownership and free usage of our automobiles is part and parcel of the freedoms of this country. Now a political party is actually telling us, “Shut the hell up and do as we allow you to do”.
Maybe it IS time to clean the musket.
can you IMAGINE???
He’s already taken our helicopter away - he should just leave it at that!
Agreed. I thought it interesting that he felt comfortable enough to actually use the word.
Putting on my most cynical/paranoid hat, I will say: If everyone lives in cities, and if the cities depend upon supplies trucked in from remote locations, then the government has a very easy time dealing with dissent. Absolutely any law can be imposed on the population, and what are the people going to do about it?? The day may come when we all live in the Warsaw Ghetto and crawl through sewers trying to bring back food from beyond the lines of an encircling army.
“Welcome to the party, pal...”
There ya go, thinking as an individual, or as a family, and not as “a village”.
Such thoughts will have to be “re-educated” out of you.
Liberals don't want your mother to shop at non union Wal-Mart.
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