There is ONE thing public transit in the United States of Amerikka does better, BY FAR, than any other transit system in the WORLD. It's important to understand the basic premise of public transportation in the United States today. Forget any notion of getting anywhere efficiently or safely, unless you are on a pair of steel rails (fat chance, and protect your eardrums even then.) The very purpose of public transportation in the US today is, quite simply, to send people screaming, crying, hand wringing and running to the nearest car sales lot, swearing that come hell and high water, (begin preparing today for both)that they will get, buy, and have, their own car. This is enforced with a vengeance when transit strikes cripple the already utterly marginalized system of public transit in the US, further marginalized and trivialized by each and every Republican administration. I am pro-union and understand the power to strike is the most fundamental tool of the unions, but this recipe plays right into the hands of the global auto industry. Schedules are slashed and fares exponential-ed at such a rate, the vortex downward spiral goes you are dumped off the bus a mile from your stop owing more fare than you paid already cuz the fare was raised and the route cut during your ride! Elected officials, please note: Public transit systems are rather easier to build and maintain, than fragile pipelines across hostile nations. Dear Readers, please note: It IS possible, healthy, and highly desirable that you visit a BICYCLE shop, not a tailpipes/salesmen/gridlock lot, in event of transit strikes. Health and energy independence are not free entitlements, but a nice fringe benefit of bicycling, which incidentally is a method too of supporting public transit when transit agencies appropriately integrate bikes with transit vehicles. The extraordinary bike racks on the trains of Stuttgart, Germany are a good example of what bike activists in this country need to lobby for. Local ordinances criminalizing bicycles to the point of "use a bike - go to jail" as per Berkeley, California codes, could also use some monkey-wrenching.
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By James DMake-it-home-safe MANTRA: When dealing with traffic, it's better to be patient than to become a patient; AND - A Sailboat is to a Polluting Cruise Ship what a bicycle is to a smokin' Hummer. I know bikes are beautiful but I’M not backing off until bikes are bountiful and bikers have greater strength in numbers. CategoriesArchives
February 2016
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