"Far from being disdained and disparaged as an 'energy waster,' the automobile should be hailed for its ability to save our most precious resource: time."
The author's quick jump to the conclusion that the automobile is so valuable that people are not going to change needs to be questioned! The funny thing is that when my wife decided to give up our car shortly after the birth of our daughter, it actually turned out that she ended up with more free time as a result of using alternatives. I agree people are acting rationally given what the average American understands about their transportation choices. Yet, many are quite upset about the increase in gas prices. Something doesn't seem right. I believe this article suggests another, much more significant obstacle to the adoption of MV-alternatives: saturation of automobile know-how in our culture and almost no knowledge of options associated with MV alternatives. If people knew how much time they could save using alternatives, and if properly designed neighborhoods existed in sufficient quantities that facilitated car-lite lifestyles, I believe the switch to alternatives would be much more responsive to gas price changes - and everybody would be better off for it! -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Eric Westhagen Sent: Monday, January 14, 2008 8:03 PM To: BikiesSubmissions Subject: [Bikies] Another conclusion to coercion for policy Dear Group, Attached is a link to another conclusion to the use of tax coercion to affect automobile choice and policy. Eric Westhagen http://www.independent.org/printer.asp?page=%2Fnewsroom%2Farticle%2Easp? id=2099 _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies _______________________________________________ Bikies mailing list [email protected] http://www.danenet.org/mailman/listinfo/bikies
