In a single lifetime, we have moved into severe car dependency. Our cities are purposefully built so that only cars can be used. Don’t you see? This is a problem that we’ve created completely by ourselves. If we keep heading in that direction because it’s cheaper and easier, i.e. leaving the band-aid on, major investment into public transit simply will not happen because it’s ‘too expensive and too hard’.
I never said not do both, but I’m seeing time and time again that new roads are being invested rather than investment into other options. What usually happens in reality is one or the other. Look at Egypt, look at the US, look at Australia. Then look at places like the Netherlands.
Netherlands still have roads but in Metropolitan areas, there are a huge number of alternatives.
By the way, when you say you don’t have other means of transport, what locations are you referring to? What I was referring to was Metropolitan areas. Regional areas, where there is a lower density, should still be provided with roads as a means of travel. It’s ridiculous to think that Metropolitan cities don’t have pubic transit infrastructure in first world cities.
but I’m seeing time and time again that new roads are being invested rather than investment into other options.
This is politics more than anything else. I see loads of investment into transit in my daily life. But that’s because I live in California.
Say you could somehow largely remove cars from a conservative led area, somehow. Do you really think they would spend money on transit? Of course not, they would tell the poors to walk.
Transit spending is an absolute necessity in what you’re proposing, and all the band aid ripping in the world won’t force it to happen when the purse strings are controlled by conservatives.
There’s been this weird trend in young voters for a while now, along the lines of “if it just gets bad enough then it will turn good again, somehow!” If the Democrats lose badly enough they’ll start enacting progressive policies. If the economy gets bad enough we’ll increase the social safety net. If the climate gets bad enough we’ll start banning fossil fuels.
It’s some of the dumbest, most naive shit I’ve ever heard. There is no rock bottom. There is no wake up call. Ripping the band aid off likely just means we bleed to death.
In a single lifetime, we have moved into severe car dependency. Our cities are purposefully built so that only cars can be used. Don’t you see? This is a problem that we’ve created completely by ourselves. If we keep heading in that direction because it’s cheaper and easier, i.e. leaving the band-aid on, major investment into public transit simply will not happen because it’s ‘too expensive and too hard’.
I never said not do both, but I’m seeing time and time again that new roads are being invested rather than investment into other options. What usually happens in reality is one or the other. Look at Egypt, look at the US, look at Australia. Then look at places like the Netherlands.
Netherlands still have roads but in Metropolitan areas, there are a huge number of alternatives.
By the way, when you say you don’t have other means of transport, what locations are you referring to? What I was referring to was Metropolitan areas. Regional areas, where there is a lower density, should still be provided with roads as a means of travel. It’s ridiculous to think that Metropolitan cities don’t have pubic transit infrastructure in first world cities.
Many cities in the US have only nominal bus lines. Buses that run twice a day, etc.
This is politics more than anything else. I see loads of investment into transit in my daily life. But that’s because I live in California.
Say you could somehow largely remove cars from a conservative led area, somehow. Do you really think they would spend money on transit? Of course not, they would tell the poors to walk.
Transit spending is an absolute necessity in what you’re proposing, and all the band aid ripping in the world won’t force it to happen when the purse strings are controlled by conservatives.
There’s been this weird trend in young voters for a while now, along the lines of “if it just gets bad enough then it will turn good again, somehow!” If the Democrats lose badly enough they’ll start enacting progressive policies. If the economy gets bad enough we’ll increase the social safety net. If the climate gets bad enough we’ll start banning fossil fuels.
It’s some of the dumbest, most naive shit I’ve ever heard. There is no rock bottom. There is no wake up call. Ripping the band aid off likely just means we bleed to death.