BIKE: Re: The should-be intelligent transportation solutions lobby

[Patrick Goetz]

Mike Dahmus wrote:
> 
> A. Chance of #1 beating either #999 or #1000 in the near-term (next few 
> years): 0.0000000%.

> 
> And if you disagree about the chances of #1 in the near-term, you need 
> to spend some time out here in the 'burbs. Or, perhaps, you could just 
> take my word for it, since I'm continuously immersed in suburban hell 
> most of the day, while you work at UT.
> 

Perhaps.  However, question:  have any of these burbers been alerted to 
the possibility of an alternative way of solving our transportation 
problems?  Even one time, say, on late night TV, stuffed between a 
couple of long infomercials?  I think not.  I don't like repeating 
myself, but let me reiterate that the people running the anti-toll road 
Austin Toll Party were quick to embrace monorail (or a similar sensible, 
quality mass transit solution) as a much better investment than toll 
roads.  This is absolutely not as simple as "give me free roads or give 
me death".  Many, many suburbanites are not nearly as stupid as we 
frequently characterize them to be.  Once I get to talking to some of 
these folks, I find that they have very reasonable attitudes about how 
transportation money should be spent, and are very enthusiastic about 
directing growth to the urban core rather than creating yet another ring 
of suburbs even further out than they are.  The problem is that the 
powers that be (politicians and their financial backers) have no 
incentive whatsoever to admit that there are alternatives -- they make 
good money on road construction and have every intention of keeping the 
gravy train rolling until such time as they can retire to the Virgin 
Islands and live off of their numbered Swiss bank accounts.

Not to insert religion into this discussion, but this anecdote is quite 
relevant.  A couple of years ago I mentioned to my boss, a christian 
suburbanite from Hays county, that Jesus was in fact not born on 
December 25, and that this date was simply conveniently selected by the 
early church to correspond with the winter solstice in order to 
facilitate the conversion of pagans to christianity.  She was completely 
shocked by this observation, as in her entire 50 years of existence, no 
one had ever suggested anything like this, as unimaginable as this is. 
Much later, she told me that this single comment threw her entire 
religious belief system into turmoil, as she began wondering what other 
erroneous assumptions she might have been basing her beliefs on.

I think this might be a fairly accurate analogy for most suburbanites' 
belief that more roads will mean less congestion and a better quality of 
life.  In point of fact, no one has ever told them otherwise, just like 
no one ever told my boss that Christmas day is a faked event, and even 
one tiny dose of reality could be the catalyst for a massive shift in 
perception.  To this end, since you're "continuously immersed in 
suburban hell" by your own admission, don't you think your time would be 
better spent explaining to the burbers that there is no highway tooth 
fairy rather than trying to get them to pour ligher fluid on the house 
fire rather than gasoline because lighter fluid is slightly less volatile?