🚀 go-pugleaf

emd@ham.almanac.bc.ca writes:

>schuck@fraser.sfu.ca (Bruce Jonathan Schuck) writes:

>> A better solution, and cheaper, would be to ban cars in the downtown
>> area of Vancouver and force people to use buses, skytrain and commuter
>> rail. That would be cheaper and cleaner and much less of a waste of
>> resources.


>There are all kinds of valid reasons for people to drive various kinds of 
>vehicles, including cars instead of takiing public transit, and a ban on 
>cars in the downtown area would be completely impractical.

>How, for example are salesmen with samples, techicians with tools or 
>parts, or people whose work shifts don't coincide with BC Transit's 
>schedule going to get around? Walk? 

Walking sounds good, so does taking a bus, a CNG or Propane powered
taxi, people movers like the one at Expo are a solution as well.

Air quality in Vancouver is deteriorating rapidly.
Asthma attacks are increasing astronomically.

It's time to inconvenience *some* people to benefit all.

>If you want to make transit attractive, it needs to go everywhere people 
>need to go, when they want to go, provide safe transportation (including 
>personal safety for the passengers), and do so at a price people are 
>willing to pay.

People will still take the car. People drive for a variety of reasons,
and cost and convenience is only one of them. Many people drive just
for the sense of personal freedom.


>What is needed instead is a lot of incremental improvements, each 
>of which will only do a little to improve the situation, but together 
>will make a real difference.

Well....we aren't making any improvements. The Alex Fraser was
supposed to fix traffic problems for decades. It's full already.

The time of the car has to come to an end. It must be legislated in
order to clean the air. We can't afford more freeways and bridges.


-- 
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"We've got to get bigger guns" -- Dick Durkin                  schuck@sfu.ca
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