The American car culture is running out of gas

[nxylas]

Editorial from the Philadelphia Enquirer:

http://www.philly.com/inquirer/opinion/20080518_The_American_car_culture_is_running_out_of_gas.html

[marmar]

1. Amen.....Is reality beginning to set in in this country? Finally?

:shrug:

[nxylas]

2. Parts of it

Whether the Southeast catches up remains to be seen. As I posted on another thread, I'm contemplating the possibility of having to up sticks and move if a referendum in my hometown (Columbia, SC) on whether to raise a 1% sales tax in order to keep our bus system running goes the wrong way. I hope Columbians won't be so shortsighted, but that's by no means guaranteed. I'm checking out other cities just in case (Boston's looking good at the moment, but I'm worried about the effects that the cold winters will have on my wife's health - she suffers from scleroderma, one of the symptoms of which is poor circulation).

[marmar]

3. Would refusal to pass the tax result in the elimination of the bus system altogether?

n/t

[nxylas]

4. Possibly

If we're lucky, it might "only" result in it being slashed by 85%, with no service at all on weekends.

[marmar]

5. "slashed by 85%, with no service at all on weekends."

Good grief.

[nxylas]

6. There are a lot of smug Repuke types here

They like to say thing like "Why should I pay for the bus system? I never use it". They don't actually say "only the little people do that", but you can be damn sure they're thinking it. Pro-transit people in public meetings and in the letters page of The State newspaper have pointed out that even if they don't use the buses, the blue collar workers who serve them meals and clean their offices (and their hospital rooms if they are unfortunate enough to get sick) certainly do, but that argument is largely a waste of time, since they are stuck in that Randian mode of thought that sees the people at the bottom of the pyramid as parasites upon the body politic, rather than people who perform unglamorous but necessary jobs. And they're too self-absorbed even to make the connection between better public transportation and less traffic congestion. I think the only argument that they would understand is the question of what it would do to Columbia's inward investment. Imagine you're the CEO of a multinational corporation and you're looking to relocate somewhere in the Southeast. You take one look at Columbia and find that its citizens voted yes to keeping the Confederate battle flag flying on the State House lawn, but no to keeping its bus system. What would go through your mind:

a) "This seems like a forward-looking city that is likely to have a skilled and educated workforce"; or
b) the first few bars of Dueling Banjos?