Comment 40018

By Kiely (registered) | Posted April 21, 2010 at 12:58:15

With significantly less automotive traffic on the roads, roads will last a lot longer. - Brandon

Biggest factor on our road maintenance is trucks and weather and the bike-lobby doesn't solve either of those issues.

I disagree with the idea that we can't start making incremental changes right now. - Ryan

Of course we can, I never said we couldn't... I have disagreed with you about what they should be though (e.g., bike paths versus bike lanes).

It's a legitimate issue - Ryan

That you spent how many posts arguing with me about?

Maybe next time Ryan we'll be able to avoid the BS arguments and get to the root of the issue quicker?

While I certainly understand the point being made here, I think it becomes a bit nebulous when trying to guess at what may or may not happen in specific economic sectors. - Jason

This is why open, honest and focused discussion/debate is important.

Then we get to the arguments that cars become a tool for the wealthy as the poor can't afford them anymore. Sigh. - Brandon

It is a valid argument. Many of our efforts to change behavior become tax or fee based which basically sends the message if you have enough money you can do whatever you want.

Sin taxes, user fees, tolls, etc… can be useful tools but when they are the go to solution every time it becomes a problem and does add to the ever growing rich vs poor divide.

Let's stick with cars for example… taxing gas, putting up tolls, increasing the cost of car usage is one way to reduce cars on our roads and the one often cited by people who fancy themselves as progressive. But to me, taxing citizens is anything but progressive. What if the government gave companies incentives to allow more employees to telecommute or simply told them they had to like they tell us we have to pay more? I know lots of people who drive to work, work on their computers, answer emails or phones interact with very few or no people face-to-face and then go home. Do you need to commute 1 hour to do that in this day and age? No, but we never seem to take that type of different approach when it is just too easy to make citizens pay more.

Change can't always be the citizen's responsibility or burden, it is time to spread the responsibility for change to a broader segment of our society. Governments and corporations need to start to doing more. Governments need to look beyond the easy tax grab solution and corporations need to start being more progressive and make changes to the way their businesses run to help us shift the way our society runs to a more sustainable mode.

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