Posted on 05/26/2009 10:21:11 AM PDT by ClassicLiberal
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.”
(Excerpt) Read more at cnsnews.com ...
Beware of Nazis in business suits.
I happen to enjoy country life and driving an SUV. I doubt I can be coaxed out of my life style.
he wants to “coerce people out of their cars.”
O.K.!...you stupid smart-ass! When are you going to build the light rail line from anywhere near my house to my place of employment forty miles away? Just let me know...O.K.?
You first....get outta your government provided limo.
The list, ping
They’ll only get my evil, diesel-swilling SUV from my cold, dead hands.
Stick your stupid bike where the sun don’t shine!....
Obama is a fascist! People need to call Obama a fascist more than a socialist. Although he blends the two totalitarian forms of government in such a way as to be very scary.
Is Ray-Ray chauffered to work via bicycle?
Let’s start by bringing rickshaws back to the streets of DC and requiring anyone above the rank of GS10 to use them to get to work and meetings!
Seems sort convaluted here.
The Obama Adminstration has taken huge stakes in General Motors and Chrysler- whose principle lines of business are private motorcars. Obama has said that these will be viable ongoing businesses in fairly short order.
And now, they want to get Americans out of their cars? Does Obama think that GM and Chrysler will make their money exporting their product to India or China?
One more example out of thousands of huge political opportunities for the Republicans which will be ignored in favor of getting along.
I can’t ride a bicycle thirty miles each way to work. Some of us live in small towns and rural areas. If you don’t have a car in towns like that, it’s hard to get a good job.
My SUV has a mind of its own. I hope my SUV doesn’t see this asshole jaywalking one day. I might not be able to stop my evil SUV from swerving.
We have “livable communities...” They’re called suburbs.
They want people to be stuck in crime-riddled cities with bad schools, high taxes and corrupt governments.
Excellent.
It worked with smokers, now for drivers.
We have a secretary of transportation against transportation. Just like all the other agencies.
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