…of making you take the bus:
In this new religion, taking the bus, riding a bike, or walking instead of driving are pious good works. And there is no surmounting the religion’s faith in solving transportation problems by addressing every mode of transit but what most people actually use to get from point A to point B.
During Idaho’s last legislative session, the legislature was presented with information that our existing highways and bridges were in disrepair. One State Senate Democrat focused on the “need” for bike lanes even in rural areas, where riding a bicycle is not an option for most because of the distance involved. Yes, I’m sure there are some people that ride their bicycles in Challis (pop: 909) but does it really make sense to spend the money?
It seems that part of the faith is that these options — even if barely used — are good in and of themselves.
Of course, empty bike lanes are a waste of money. Empty buses are a waste of money and fuel. In the private sector, a company whose service was as unpopular as mass transit would carefully evaluate the service and the marketing, and figure out why people don’t ride.
Not so much with the federal government. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood admitted at the National Press Club recently, regarding the administration’s policies: “It is a way to coerce people out of their cars.”
And here’s some more of this fascistic foolishness from the new Transportation Secretary:
The conservative columnist George Will recently denounced you as the “secretary of behavior modification,” in reference to your plan to have Americans give up cars.
When George came over here for lunch, I could tell from the tone of our conversation that he wasn’t particularly keen on what we were trying to promote here.
You first were elected to Congress out of Peoria, Ill., as part of the so-called Republican revolution.
I came to Congress in 1994. I had no idea I was going to be a part of the majority party.
Now you’re in the minority.
I’m in the majority.
But aren’t you a Republican?
I am. But I’m a part of the Obama team. And they’re the majority party.
Does that make for any awkwardness with your fellow Republicans?
Not one bit. I’ve had a lot of Republicans calling me asking me how they can get some of the stimulus money and how they can get their projects funded.
…But if Americans increasingly get around by rail, bus and bicycle, as you’ve planned, who will be buying cars in the future?
I think everybody will have an automobile. I think it’s amazing in America when you drive around and look at new homes that are being built, there are three-car garages. I don’t think you’re going to see families with three cars. I think you’re going to see families with one car, possibly two.
We will change our lifestyles to conform with the state religion of our moral betters, regardless of the economic madness of it, or the impact on our personal freedom.
[Update a couple minutes later]
And then there’s this:
It is a six-mile stretch of guardrail near a manufactured lake in a desolate patch of the Oklahoma Panhandle. There’s little reason for anyone to visit. Weeds are overgrown; the lake bed is virtually dry.
Yet repairing the guardrail is on a list of projects developed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to tap into President Obama’s $787-billion economic stimulus program.
The country’s in the very best of hands.