From: Matt Logan
<[email protected]>
To: pddiscuss
<[email protected]>;
Bikies
<[email protected]>
Sent: Wed, March 24, 2010 8:04:27 AM
Subject: Re: [Bikies] Randall O'Toole in Madison
tomorrow (Wed) evening at UW
And I sent this letter to the Editor on Monday:
Randall O’Toole is a senior fellow at the CATO institute and he has a
new vision for transportation in America: Driverless cars. This vision
is from a 1939 World’s fair exhibit called “Futurama” that was sponsored
by General Motors. While driverless cars would have a lot of benefits
those benefits only go to people who do a lot of driving. And that is
the problem.
Studies show that a growing number of Americans are looking to do less
driving and live closer to daily needs that are within a quick walk,
bus, or bicycle trip. This runs counter to the world of Futurama, where
daily needs are ”widely separated for convenience”. O’Toole likes to
make fun of the expense of living in human-scaled communities, but that
expense is the result of development patterns that have restricted
compact development. The fact that a growing number of people are
willing to pay the premium of living in compact development suggests
that we need to focus on building more if it instead of on increasing
mobility as O’Toole prescribes.
While a new round of improved national mobility might help companies
like General Motors (a major sponsor of the CATO institute), it has the
potential to harm our environment and make us more dependent on foreign
sources of energy. Focusing on improving human-scaled mobility will
meet the needs of a growing number of Americans by helping them save
money on transportation in a way that reduces our energy and
environmental problems.
You can view "Futurama" here:
GM Futurama - 1939 World's Fair - Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=74cO9X4NMb4
GM Futurama - 1939 World's Fair - Part 2
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU7dT2HId-c
(The quote about "Widely Separated For Convenience" occurs early in part
22)
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