TRANSPORTATION PART 1

General Motors and Chrysler are facing some angry public criticism after pleading for and receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer aid. There's no need to be too hard on them. After all, auto corporations produce and promote products, and lobby legislators for an easier ride — that's their business. Our political leaders are the ones who (are supposed to) make (intelligent) transportation policy — that's supposed to be our (the public's) business.

Can we do better than perpetuating our grossly inefficient and expensive car-centred system for getting around? This is a good time to ask that question.

Helping Chrysler and GM produce cars won't produce car buyers.



The inefficiency of our transportation system starts at home. Every year, the average motorist forks over more than $10,000 in after tax income (the cost to own and operate a car) just to participate in the system. Next to a house, a car is usually the biggest investment a family will make. Unlike a house, a car sits empty 95 percent of the time, and depreciates right after being driven off the dealer's lot.

Communities are victims of a related waste of resources. The lives and health of citizens are squandered. The public purse is drained to build, maintain, and police roads. Since 1980, car crashes have claimed over one million lives in Canada and the US — and caused tens of millions of injuries and disabilities. Property damage from accidents in Canada costs billions of dollars each year. And, according to Transport Canada, traffic congestion carries a $3.7 billion annual price tag for our major cities.
ABOVE EXCERPT ALBERT KOEHL(ECO JUSTICE)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NUCLEAR=WATER HOG

Image
The Association is asserting that the nearby Plymouth-based nuclear power plant has created a “killing zone” in Cape Cod Bay that not only affects the future health of the Jones River and its native species but the health of a wide variety of aquatic species, large and small, and the food they depend on to survive. The Watershed Association and Pilgrim Watch have jointly written to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) suggesting that the plant’s owner – Entergy Corporation – should not have its license to operate the Pilgrim nuclear power plant extended unless and until it upgrades the facility’s water cooling system. That license expires later this year, and Entergy has been engaged in a license renewal process for more than six years. The Association and Pilgrim Watch assert that the plant’s cooling system – which uses seawater to maintain safe temperatures at the plant – is discharging harmful pollution and potentially impacting endangered species and their hab
Read more

tar sands protest,washington dc

post she wrote about visiting her native Alberta, where she saw the tar sands up close. She explains a bit about why this kind of individual outreach is so important: "A week after I visited the Canadian Tar Sands “to see for myself” what that area is all about, I received emails from several of my friends and colleagues, encouraging me to join them in Washington, DC for a "peaceful protest" against the proposed pipeline that would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas… I am signed up for a Tar Sands protest at the White House in Washington, DC that has the potential to get the protesters arrested. Do I feel this cause is important enough to take these risks? YES I do. I hope my kids will be proud of me, and that it builds on my legacy and actions to try to raise awareness to the growing reality of climate change that is threatening my children’s future and mine. I want to WAKE UP my neighbors, friends, colleagues and total strangers by showing them that a mo
Read more

WALMART UN-PATRIOTIC

The battle between as the world's largest retailer and those who oppose it constructing a new store on the site of one of the Civil War's largest and most important battles continues. DCist music editor Amanda Mattos reports that a letter signed by some 250 scholars, from Ken Burns to David McCullough, puts Wal-Mart on notice: "The Wilderness is an indelible part of our history, its very ground hallowed by the American blood spilled there, and it cannot be moved." In December, the company prepared to submit an application for a special-use permit to construct a store on a portion of the battlefield, which is part of Fredericksburg & Spotsylvania National Military Park. As Mattos notes, the Battle of the Wilderness was the first battle between Ulysses S. Grant and Robert E. Lee. It cost 4,000 soldiers their lives and wounded 20,000 others and started the final push towards the end of the war. . . . . .IN SPITE OF THEIR SOMETIMES CHEAP PRICES WALMART DOES A LOT OF
Read more