Wednesday, July 21, 2004

Build Your Way Out of Congestion?

We've all seen it:

-- "Building more freeways to cure
-- traffic problems is like loosening
-- your belt to cure obesity."

Here's the truth:

Paul Billings of the American Lung Association, "Building more roads to solve an air pollution problem is like buying a larger pair of pants to solve an obesity problem."

Failing to build and maintain roads is like refusing to buy your children new clothes in the hopes that they will stop growing.

Obesity is caused by consuming far more than one actually produces. This goes for people and transportation infrastructure. Roads contribute far more in productive output than they consume. Transit is the obese villian in this scenario. .

Maybe the railigous meant this other "expert":

"Widening highways to solve congestion is like lengthening belt to
solve obesity - it feels good for a while - but only initiates bigger
problems" - John Valerio VP ColoRail.

Refusing to buy your children larger shoes will keep them
from growing.

Public transit is a tapeworm. Living off a host, giving nothing in
return and ultimately killing both by over-consumption.

Roads no more foster development than spoons cause obesity.

Trying to reduce congestion by building mass transit is like trying
to solve obesity by averaging your weight with the anorexic next
door on public support living there via Section 8 Housing Vouchers.

Maybe the railheads meant:

"Trying to reduce congestion by widening the highway is like trying to
address obesity by loosening your belt." -- Drew Kodjak, NJPIRG

Another famous "expert."

Look, we've poured 300 billion over the last 4 decades into a transportation mode that continues to lose market share. Why is transit immune to the "you cannot build your way out" syndrome transitistas are so sure applies to roads?

1 comment:

Seb said...

First!