Monday, November 22, 2010
Environment The carless culture
Posted by Max Brantley on Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 10:29 AM
I'm blessed to be on the mailing list of Debbie Pelley, a dedicated and energetic wingnut whose writings over the years have spanned everything from the evils of certain types of teaching methods to the glories of Jim Holt.
Today's missive is on the Obama-backed (and John Brummett-endorsed!) move to a carless society. She's raising an alarm about the presentation of a Muslim (!) transportation planner in her hometown of Jonesboro. He's craftily pushing the carless agenda by advocating for bike trails and even streets that have room for bikes and pedestrians and bus stops as well as cars. Oh, sure, it's just for recreation NOW. But that's not the master plan. Trust Debbie.
You can have Debbie's steering wheel when you pry it from her cold, dead fingers.
We were totally flabbergasted to learn how far along our own area is on this road to wean us off cars and to coerce us into using alternate transportation like bikes, buses, walking, and rail.
PS — As luck would have it, New York news today includes motorists' revolt against accommodations made to bikers in New York City.
If only.
Comments (36)
Showing 1-36 of 36
"We the People" need to return to the "Values of Our Founding Fathers." Does anyone know where I can buy a horse?
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I really can’t believe anyone would be so adamantly opposed to having fewer cars on the street and more biking and hiking. I really don't understand. Doesn’t she know everyone walked in town in Mayberry?
hahahahahahaha
Crazy lady is still crazy and bikes are a mooslim soros socialist conspiracy.
These people are NUTS...how can anyone take them seriously?
Hey Debbie, put down the keys to the minivan every now and again. Being physically active can add years to your life. A large percentage of people I work with are overweight - not me, but I commute to work on a bicycle. Coincidence?
Sweet weepin' Haysoose. Talk about paranoid. As my dear, departed Pappy used to say, "She ain't sailin' with a full seabag."
Purr thang.
Just because Debbie has nothing better to do with her time than write (and write, and write) this stuff, doesn't mean that I have nothing better to do with my time than read it. No way I'm plowing through that whole thing.
Seems to me that she'd want some of them cars off the road, unless of course, she's trying to run 'em off the road herself.
"And he said something like... and I said something like... and then he said something like..."
Her little blog article is adorable though. She references both Muslims and abortions in a debate about bicycle lanes. I'm glad that SHE sees the big picture. The day I have to walk to the store for my groceries then the terrorists have won.
If a lunatic comes in saying the sky is blue is he wrong because he's crazy?
The facts are that the federal government is siphoning of dollars from "highway funds" (ironically generated by cars and gasoline consumption) and funneling them to unelected commissions and devoting them to development of multi-million dollar but unneeded and largely unwanted bike and pedestrian infrastructure. Wait and watch for how few people use the new bridge to Two Rivers park. If we had our money (was it $20M?) back for the Big Dam Bridge would anybody miss it? Would *most* folks in PulCo rather have the Big Dam Bridge or two new pods in the county jail?
Debbie may be a certified nut, but that doesn't mean she's totally crazy here.
Unwanted and uneeded bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure?
Theo, Theo. Not been on the BDB have you?
Were you one of the "it would never get used" people?
I'll bet the BDB gets used by not only recreational users but also by people with real places to go. Just because you don't use it or need it doesn't mean its not needed or wanted.
Just over half of the "highway fund", is funded by fuel and vehicle taxes at all levels of government. The rest comes from property taxes, general fund allocations, bond issues, and transit fares. So, Non-drivers are already helping to pay.
4 years ago, spending on all nonmotorized projects, including trails, accounts for less than 1.5% of Federal transportation funding.
Debbie is advocating a car only transportation system that has steadily failed to deliver since the 50's. Time to move on to a diverse transportation infrastructure that delivers on the true American Ideal of choice.
I suspect she is one of those folks who think the white contrails in the sky are actually a government plot to crop dust us all.
One of the nicer and most pointed arguments that I use to answer this sort of question is the one with which John Forester opens his chapter of traffic skills in "Effective Cycling": Every citizen has a constitutional right to travel. The roads and highways are public highways, built for the use of the people as a whole. All persons have an equal right to use the public roads and highways for the purposes of travel by proper means, and with due regard for the corresponding rights of other legitimate users. You may not camp on the highway - that is not travel, and it prevents others from traveling. You may not drive an overweight truck, or use a tractor with steel tires or cleats - because that damages the highways for others. You may not drive a motor vehicle without a license, or drive a vehicle while drunk or otherwise impaired, because that endangers others. In short, if you treat other users as they should treat you, you have exactly the same rights as they have. (Forester, Effective Cycling, 6th Ed., (1994), pp. 248-249)
The legal term for a driver is “driver of a vehicle”; everyone who drives a car, truck, motorcycle, bus, or wagon, or rides horseback, or rides a bicycle is a driver of a vehicle. One class of drivers of vehicles has a special restriction: drivers of motor vehicles must be licensed, may overtake on the right only under special conditions, may not follow too closely, and may not race on the public roads. These conditions are imposed by society because motor vehicles can be extremely dangerous to other highway users (as exemplified by the approximately 43,000 deaths each year due to motor vehicle crashes and collisions). No other drivers of vehicles have such restrictions because non-motorized vehicles are not as dangerous to others as are motor vehicles. But, because there are so few horses, mules, and wagons on the roads today, drivers are nearly always motorists or motorcyclists (drivers of motor vehicles) or cyclists (drivers of vehicles).
Looking at our society today. more than a third of our citizens can't drive, or don't have access to a motor vehicle. The elderly, for example (21% of those over age 65, and growing)... or those who have some disability or handicap which prevents their being licensed to drive. Or youngsters, who are too young to be licensed. Maybe they simply can't afford to purchase, own, operate, or insure a car or truck. And there is a distinct minority who through some sort of legal or administrative action have lost their privilege to have a drivers license.
All these people still have a need as well as a right to travel, whether it be to the grocery store, back and forth to work, to visit their Aunt Mabel in Rabbit Hash, Kentucky, or to go to the casinos in Mississippi to enhance the local economy down there. And our current, car-centric transportation network doesn't serve these folks in any manner.
When I was a youngster growing up in England, Arkansas, I could go down to Lipscomb's Drug Store on Main Street and catch a Continental Trailways bus to Little Rock, to Pine Bluff, to Louisiana, or nearly anywhere else in Arkansas or the rest of the country. We don't have that network any more between our cities and towns. If you live in England today and need to go to Little Rock to work, shop, visit, or whatever, you have to have a car, or face a 30-mile walk. Only 5 cities in Arkansas today have any form of public transport or buses. If you're an elderly person living out in the country on the old family farm, you're just flat stranded.
Even in town, where walking distances are a little more reasonable, there's no place to safely or comfortably walk, since cities typically don't put in sidewalks except in the downtown business area. Developers typically build streets in new additions today, and they rarely include sidewalks. In a 2003 survey, one out of every four walking trips made in America occurred in a street traffic lane, because there was no sidewalk or greenspace to walk on near the roadway.
Probably the biggest argument we can make to our legislators, public officials, other activists, and the general public is that of Equity. Like the health care system, our transportation system is focused on benefiting only a portion of our citizens who need to go somewhere... It's high time we ensure that the public roads serve not only those who drive, but those who need to go, but can't drive. Once you've made that argument, then the additional benefits of healthy lifestyle, that most driving trips are less than 3 miles, lowered carbon footprints, and other environmental benefits are just gravy... ;-)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hubbert_peak_…
The question of when oil production will enter an era of permanent decline is not an "if" but a "when." Of course, the amount of oil available for extraction may not be much of an issue if, say, Iran and Israel start lobbing nukes at one another. (Just joking! Such a thing could happen in such a stable part of the world.)
It's especially rich that this brain-dead twit sees bikes and public transportation as a Muslim threat. Last time I checked, Mecca sits adjacent to (if not ON) the largest remaining oil reserves in the f*cking world. Without oil, few of us would think about that part of the world very much, Islam or no Islam.
Our last war for oil didn't make it any cheaper. The next one could double the cost per gallon in a few week's time. How might this affect the lives of folks with 40, 50, or 60+ mile daily commutes from Cabot, Conway, etc? At 20 mpg, that commute would cost $20-ish bucks a day, or $5,000 a year. Might a bus or train be an attractive option in such a situation?
Silly me. I keep forgetting that it is our God-given right to live in an age of permanently cheap energy, and with nary a negative consequence.
Debbie is not opposed to having less cars on the road she is opposed to being forced to do so. Should we comply with standards thought up by people who think they can better plan our lives for us than the local citizens themselves? The Jonesboro MPO's plan uses words like "coax" when describing the need to get people away from cars. Debbie is simply raising the alarm and rightly knows that the majority of the people of Jonesboro would not agree with the city's plan that comes directly from a United Nations agenda. We have a failed public transit system that no one uses if certain individuals have their way we will be forced to.
I love how these nuts simply state that so and so communists do so it must be a communist plot at world domination.
News flash to wingnuts, In communist countries they breathe air nearly all the time, that should be good enough reason to ban air breathing in the US.
I also understand that Muslims are known to eat a couple times a day no matter what. So those who eat are only giving in to the Muslimification of America and must be stopped!
ITT: People who LOL hard at this crazy lady but see nothing wrong with believing the Koch brothers are conspiring to kill public edition, everyone who disapproves of President Obama is a racist, and the government is owned by corporations which is absolutely proven by the Citizens United decision.
(I'm looking at you any*mouse.)
"We have a failed public transit system that no one uses if certain individuals have their way we will be forced to."
sigh
The public transit system has failed because tax dollars have been funelled to projects that favor car use.
I wonder if Jethro or Debbie have a problem with the way American citizens have been "coaxed" to drive everywhere?
Tax dollars being used primarily for highways and roads means that there will be less alternative transportation options as Pscyclepath wrote. As these alternative forms of transportation began harder to access people naturally turned to cars. The problem with all of this is in the end the old and the poor/working class are left out of the equation or are "coaxed" to become a part of the driving public. I wonder if Debbie realizes that there are places in this country where one does not have to even own a car to get from point A to B and people perfer that to having to drive everywhere?
Dear coled,
You write: "... People who LOL hard at this crazy lady but see nothing wrong with believing the Koch brothers are conspiring to kill public edition, ..."
If you're an example, it appears that the Koch brothers have succeeded in killing public "edition."
And jethro: What an appropriate name! Please review your grammar book, particularly the part about run-on sentences.
Oops! There I go, being all elitist.
Theo- the BDB is a very popular addition to the river trail system. If you had ever been there and hung out awhile you'd see how many people use it daily. The two rivers bridge is probably going to be pretty damn popular too. Not to mention it creates one hell of an impressive extension to the existing river trail system.
Jethro- why is a united nations agenda a bad thing? It sounds like you're scared or something. They're simply promoting effective forms of transportation that limit their impact on the environment. Until recently car companies fought environmental regulations with tooth and nail. But even cleaner cars have a major impact when a billion of them are driving over the face of the earth on a day to day basis. So what's wrong with a plan to try to coax people to more environmentally conscious forms of transport? No one is saying you can't own a car. They are hoping you'll start thinking about when you really need to use it vs just running to your local grocery on a bike with basket or some such.
The UN will not coax or coerce the American people out of their cars and into buses and trains, nor will "green" education or other incentives. Our society has based every almost every public priority on the availability of cheap oil- our aspirations, our definitions of prosperity, where we live, where we work, what we eat, where we eat, our financial priorities, the roads we travel, how we plan for the future, and our political and military strategies.
When something completely out of our control causes the price of oil to skyrocket, whether from overconsumption or something more catastrophic, THEN we will get out of our cars. The day will come -probably within our lifetimes, certainly this century- when the automobile will be a luxury most of us cannot afford, and a liability for most.
I had a feeling this would stir up some interesting, even productive, discussion. Thanks all. I don't see myself weaned from a car necessarily. But I have two kids who live without cars in New York. And I'm just back from a trip to San Francisco where convenient public transit made everything I wanted to see reachable with surprisingly little hassle. I did take a cab to the airport. Transit would have been something of a hassle from my location, but it was doable even then. I wish we had better transit everywhere. And mroe accommodations for bikes. And you should see Switzerland, where there's a marked footpath between every city and buses and trains galore, all neatly interworked into the walking systems. It can even be done in rural areas where population density doesn't reach metropolitan levels. Sure it costs money, but the benefit in quality of life is enormous. And those high gas taxes in Europe encourage many more fuel efficient cars.
Who knew!
That $15 million the City of Springdale recently coughed up to be part of the great hiking/biking trail from Fayetteville to Bentonville was nothing but a conspiracy by elitists to shape us into a public trail society;
The city bus route that ran in front of my grandma's house when I was kid, the route you could enter for 15 cents and go just about anywhere in Hot Springs was the root of evil;
That Ozark Transit who provides the crippled, blind and poor in Fayetteville and Springdale trips to Wal-Mart and doctor's offices is nothing but a secret conspiracy against Detroit and private ownership society!
I'm glad Debbie is reading her bible to learn of these atrocities in the Last Days.
>>When something completely out of our control causes the price of oil to skyrocket, ...<<
Amanita,
Here's a little video about the frog slowly boiling to death. It begins...
"You know the world is not running out of oil..."
Then tells us why globalization, suburban sprawl and many other modern developments will not be around much longer, by Canadian economist Jeff Rubin
who makes the most hard-hitting commentary on modern oil-based economies ever made to date. He describes how the most recent oil crisis caused steel production to shift from Beijing back to Pittsburgh, something that will happen permanently before long.
Well worth the view....on the link below
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYuLjGQQ-jg
First they tell us we need to say no then they tell us we'd better not be saying no. It's a wonder they can walk about the way their knees jerk all the time.
I live in a small town with no form of public transportation whatsoever. My Honda died, and just as I was almost able to replace it, I broke my arm. we couldnt cast the arm because I still have to work, typing all day.
Shortly afterward, the grocery store that has been delivering groceries since before I was born quit, saying at $5 per delivery they werent making any money. Then our one taxi service went out of business. they were expensive but were a dependable backup.
it is HARD not having a car, being dependent on other people. most show up when they said they would, but some forget you entirely. i dont go that many places, but i go to the doctor's office, the grocery store, the vet -- the usual suspects. I worry about needing a ride to the emergency room for something, just because I worry.
now my income is down again because of broken arm, and Im not allowed to drive anyway. I have to wait till my arm heals.
So. I am dependent on friends & a couple of neighbors to take me everywhere. Of course I always pay them, but i dont like always having to ask. it takes longer sometimes to find a ride than it would've taken me to drive myself there and back.
thank God the drugstore still delivers.
it wasnt so bad when I had the taxi service as a backup in case someone forgot. yes, im saving money by not having car payments, gas, insurance, etc., but my income is down anyway because it's hard to type with a broken arm. Debbie, I am certain now that a car is a necessity, especially in small towns. Im very lucky that I work at home. I think Debbie needs to find herself another dear and glorious cause to defend.
"So. I am dependent on friends & a couple of neighbors to take me everywhere. Of course I always pay them, but i dont like always having to ask. it takes longer sometimes to find a ride than it would've taken me to drive myself there and back."
Can you imagine what it would be like if you were living in an area where you had no family or friends to help out?
Of course you can since you are a thinking person with compassion and a bit of empathy, but to the Debbies, Jethros and Coleds of this country it would just be your own damn fault this happened to you, you should have planned ahead or gotten friends or went to church or not moved far from family or sacrificed more or pulled yourself up by those bootstraps.
El, that wasn't the City of Springdale that coughed up the $15 mm for the Razorback Greenway. It was a TIGER (Transportation Investments Generating Economic Return) II grant from the feds. One reason the feds approved the grant is because the Walton Family Foundation is behind it, and will probably match that $15 mm. I didn't know any Waltons were Muslim commies, but I try to learn something every day.
Alternative transportation modes are the future. We should be building a median in every street so we can put streetcars back in when hardly anybody except bus drivers will be driving on the street.
Actually, in those small towns where there's no public transportation, and you don't have access to a car, there are a lot of folks who have found a work-around... called a bicycle.
Granted, in Tina's case it's tough to try and ride with a broken arm, but most of our Delta towns are small enough, and flat enough that you can get pretty much anywhere you need to go by bike. No gas, no insurance, no license required, and your operational costs are basically your grocery bill, along with the occasional replacement inner tube or tire.
Even here in LR where there are some daunting hills, every CATA bus has a bike rack on it... I know it's worth $1.35 to me in a lot of cases to not have to climb that hill on Cantrell or try to share the road there during the madness of rush hour. But I can take the bus to a convenient stop, then bike on quieter streets to get where I need to go.
Not everyone can, or wants to drive. Those folks have the same constitutional right to travel, or go places, as safely and confidently as those who choose to drive.
Someone shoot this over to Debbie - not that I think it'll change her mind.
Debbie dear, when we were just starting out, gas cost $.19. You could have filled up my 25 gallon tank for under five bucks. Our income that first year was around $8,000. (Two of us were working and we were rich!) Today, I saw gas prices posted at $2.69. That's more than 13 times what it was back in the day.
Now if our income had kept up with that we'd be doing okay. Lessee, 13 times X $8,000 . . . $104,000, right? Ya know, there's something wrong with that equation. Our income never made it to that mark. And now, in retirement? You have to ask?
At least gas prices are not north of $4, as they were a few years ago. Can't remember exactly how high they got, but I don't suppose it matters 'cause we didn't see $160,000 a year either, much less in excess of that.
Think the gas price/income ratio will ever get any better? I don't. Nope, I think it's gonna get worse, much worse. THAT, Miz Debbie, is what will force many of us out of our cars and onto bikes or shanks mare.
Pedicabs, anyone?
psyclepath ;), riding a bike during rush hour on Cantrell sounds scary as hell and more than a little unsafe. Im glad you hop on the bus for that part.
we just are not set up for bicycle traffic in our little town. there aren't very many stretches of Main that have sidewalks; after you leave the main square, there aren't any sidewalks except going up to the college. there are so many businesses on Main Street that have lots of car traffic, like fast food restaurants, tire shops, car washes, businesses. and the people who ride bicycles on the sidewalks downtown have to be very careful not to run over people, since most people walking downtown aren't looking out for bikes on the sidewalks. besides, what would you do with a week's worth of groceries if you rode a bicycle to get them?
as far as riding a bicycle from downtown all the way down past the 2 interstate exits/entrances to walmart, i dont think most of us (definitely including me) would make it. driving there is hazardous enough.
I will have to find a car soon and since I know nothing about cars, Im not a very good car shopper. i might as well wait until I can drive, though.
we do have walking and bike trails set up along the creek, but those are just for fun.
Tina, Tina, Tina, you can't ride on the sidewalks. You gotta get out on the street with the vehicular traffic. You know, with the cars, and those pick-ups with the wide, wide mirrors. And the BIG trucks -- the kind driven by those folks who talk about "blowin' your doors off" when passing you on the interstate.
Even with those guys out there gunnin' for you, you haven't seen the worst of it. That would be Debbie Pelley and company with their minivans and SUVs aiming straight for your backside because you're just plain un-American and don't deserve to live in this country. Some gall you have, not driving a car. And riding a bike on her God-given street. I know she doesn't want to hear any excuses. Dead car? Broken arm? Bah. You unpatriotic heifer, you! (I just know Debbie wouldn't call you what I would if I were on watch.) You don't deserve to be on the same road with that inimitable patriot.
Tina,
With your web skills you will have no problem finding a good inexpensive vehicle to meet your needs, there are a number of good vehicles both economical to purchase and to operate. I found it was a lot easier when I matured enough to shove the ego into a ditty bag and concentrated on finding comfortable dependable, economical transportation.
You might also listen to Click and Clack, the Tappet Brothers on NPR. While entertaining , they also have and broadcast a lot of good information on vehicles that can serve for 10 plus years and one hundred thousand miles. I made the first group with an '84 T-bird and I'm working on the second, but I've got a long way to go.
In fact, there are some with powertrain and other assemblies warrantied for ten years 100,000 miles.
The river trail serves a real avenue for transportation. Any resident West and beyond the BDB who works near the downtown area should know they could motor a bicycle to WLR on a car, park it and ride the trail into town. Then back again.
Then there are those more accomplished cyclists that ride with confidence in traffic, know the ebb and flow of traffic in the busiest areas and accomodate accordingly. It can be done and is done by more people now than just 10 years ago.
As more avenues of dedicated bicycle pathways are created so too will these encourage even more to choose to ride a bicycle when practical for them.
eLwood, that was the most fascinating talk I have heard in a while. He mentions all kinds of things that I had not realized or heard of. Definitely worth watching!
I lived in an area that had all kinds of bike and walking paths at one time. It was wonderful - very easy to get around without getting run over by cars, my biggest fear when I use a bicycle for transportation. It really helps to have places like that, for those that must live cheaply or can't drive for other reasons. No sidewalks, no trails, no public transportation lead to isolation, poverty and depression for those that are without cars.
I love seeing people on bikes, buses, transit, etc. It means fewer cars on the road so us drivers have an easier time: fewer traffic jams, more parking available, etc. It costs a lot less to let folks who want to travel that way do that than to build new roads or add new lanes to the roads that are already here.
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