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.”
"In a question-and-answer session following his remarks, Lahood expressed exasperation with the suggestion from some of his fellow Republicans that redirecting federal transportation money from highways to other modes of transportation amounted to government meddling in individual decisions."About everything we do around here is government intrusion into people's lives," he said.
"It is a way to coerce people out of their cars. Yeah."
Rand characterizes the actions of government employees in a way that is consistent with public choice theory, describing how the language of altruism is used to pass legislation that is nominally in the public interest (e.g., the "Anti-Dog-Eat-Dog Rule," and "The Equalization of Opportunity Bill,") but which in reality serves special interests and government agencies at the expense of the public and the producers of value.
I like bike paths too. But, as you say, an idea which may have some merit seems to morph into something else -- something rather frightening.
That myth has made the rounds of various left-wing sites for years, and even became a subplot for a movie of a few years back. Wikipedia devotes some space to it, if that means anything.
Please take a couple of minutes and read this article and note the references at the end if you want more truth rather than liberal conspiracy fiction.
Yes, streetcars were popular when the alternative was walking or hiring a horse and buggy. After the automobile got going in the early part of the 20th Century and mass-production made it affordable to the average working man (blame H. Ford), streetcars were considered not just slow transportation but a nuisance. Cities actively tried to get rid of them as bad for business.
Did the big three conspire and get fined for their conspiracy?
Yes they did, that is not a myth that is fact.
I did a little race once in New Orleans between my father in his car and me on a street car, not only did I beat him to the appointed destination but I did so by ten minutes.
Street cars are anything but slow, they spend most of their time coasting with the motors off or waiting for cars to get out of their way and electric buses were as fast as any diesel bus.
The biggest reason why cities removed street cars and electric buses from their transit systems were the tracks and the overhead wires. The Automotive industry sold the idea that they were ugly and dangerous.
If you like public transportation, as apparently you do, take it. Just don't be demanding the rest of us pay for it, or worse, live the "lifestyle" that accommodates it. I think that is the crux of the issue and the point of this article.
Thanks...I realized that and read them both earlier. I even posted the links on the Rush thread. ;)
Done toldja he really *is* “the new Lincoln”.
Y’all better start buying/renting copies of Mad Max.
Already own ‘em.
Signed,
Hummungus, Lord of the Waste Land
I know you do...I meant the rest of the “y’alls”....:))
[or, to be grammatically correct “all y’alls”]
“Bicycles are foe little kids!”
And best I can tell from looking around my city, “undocumented workers”.
And in case anybody is wondering no, that is not a code-word for anything. I believe it is a very direct statement.
It works real well — takes forever to go from Norman to Fort Worth and then you need transportation when you get there. It would be even worse coming from Fort Worth to Norman unless you want to visit the Court House or Jail where the Railroad Station is located. It takes an hour longer then if I drive and cost more money. I will keep driving my SUV to Texas and skip The Heartland Flyer.
Only good time to take the Heartland Flyer is for OU/TX and they make special arrangements in Fort Worth for that trip along with specials on the train.
Does liking public transport make me a liberal?
I like street cars, and I know their value as machines.
Realistically one street car can move as many people from a suburban setting to a downtown area as 40 cars. In a continuous loop with a streetcar arriving every 2 to 5 minutes in a hour that can be the equivalent of 480 to 1200 cars per hour in a downtown parking garages or gridlock per hour.
Simple mathematics ought to tell anyone that if you can keep that many cars out of downtown areas people would be less stressed and the roads would be easier to travel.
Remember my original comment these people are idiots. they want to put everyone on bikes or in buses.
I remember another urban transformer that coerced people, from the cities to the countryside — Pol Pot. Mobility is the enemy of communism.
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Obama Says A Baby Is A Punishment
Obama: “If they make a mistake, I don’t want them punished with a baby.”
Been saying this all along. Communists ... First your guns, then your mobility.
I despise these people.
You got that right.
I swear to the great volcano God Yaweh that if one more of these mofos has a freakin "vision" for my damn life I just might go ballistic.
Or at least start working on a "Cancer List"...
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