Well, long ago, the automobile advocates ensured the destruction of the right-of-way for rail and other forms of public transportation to enrich themselves. And no one ever mentions how heavily we subsidize the necessities for travel by automobile. Hmmmmm.
Two unsupported assertions in one paragraph.
I am used to the dishonesty of the hope-over-reality contingent.
Here in the Sacramento California area, our predessesors in the 50s and 60s wisely acquired the land necessary to build a traffic ring around the city, and thus exercise that rarest of modern commodities: common sense.
A ring a la Paris or DC would have aided both intertate travel and local commute.
In the last 20 years, the greenie-unconscious brigade maneuvered the sale of strategic portions of these public lands to stymie automobile traffic planning.
They then went into their automobile-is-the world's-greatest-threat act that would do Al Gore proud.
A self-fulfilling prophecy.
Honesty from the controllers and social tinkerers is non existent.
>>Two unsupported assertions in one paragraph.I am used to the dishonesty of the hope-over-reality contingent.<<
I think it rather unfair of you, and arrogant, too, to accuse others of dishonesty when you obviously have done little to educate yourself on the matter.
1. For resources on the intentional destruction of the public transportation system in America you can refer to the following resources:
Documentary Film: Taken for a Ride
http://www.newday.com/guides/takenforarideSG.html Ripping Up Rail
Great Lakes Press
http://www.mlui.org/pubs/glb/glb13-01/glb13-14.asp Articles
Mallach, Stanley, The Origins Of The Decline Of Urban Mass Transportation In The U.S. 1890-1930 (Urbanism Past And Present, VIII Summer 1979)
Foster, Mark, City Planners And Urban Transportation: The American Response 1900-1940 (Journal Of Urban History V, May 1979)
Snell, Bradford C, American Ground Transport, presented to the subcommittee on Antitrust and monopoly, of the Judiciary, US Senate, 26 Feb 1974. see pp. 27-34
Weiner Edward, Urban Transportation Planning in the United States:An Historical Overview, 1999.
Johnston, James, Driving America, American Institute for Public Policy Research, 1997.
2. For reference to the enormous costs of subsidizing travel by automobile:
CAR SUBSIDIES IN A "FREE MARKET"
AN ASSESSMENT OF THE MUNICIPAL COSTS OF AUTOMOBILE USE
Stanley Hart (
shart@igc.apc.org)December 24, 1985
http://www.flora.org/afo/cc3.html Huge city subsidies for autos, trucks
http://www.trainweb.org/mts/fmt/fmt11.html Optimizing Public Transit Benefits
by Todd Litman
Victoria Transport Policy Institute
http://www.vtpi.org/optranbe.htm Why Subsidize Sprawl, Pollution and Consumption?
(Published: Santa Barbara News-Press - Sunday May 28, 1995)
And further:
An Analysis of the Relationship Between Highway Expansion and Congestion in Metropolitan Areas
http://www.transact.org/congestion/analysis.htm the actual TTI study discussed in the above mentioned report
http://mobility.tamu.edu/ risa