[ale] [OT] cartoon on BP spill blame

[Dylan Northrup]

On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Lightner, Jeff <jlightner at water.com> wrote:

> One problem with trying to be responsible is that smaller cars only fit
> smaller people.   Being 6'3" and ...umm... full figured I find few
> "cars" that actually fit me.   Despite that I've shopped around and
> found cars that do and resisted the urge to simply get a pickup or SUV
> even though I know many of of them will.
>

I'm 6'2", 270.  I got along just fine for many years in a Honda Civic
Hatchback and get along now in a Honda Accord.  It *is* roomier when I drive
the family mini-van, but for commuting between Marietta and Duluth, my
primary choice is the car since it gets better mileage.


> If "public transportation" actually went from point to point AND was
> policed so that thugs and lunatics didn't make it unbearable more people
> would probably prefer to use it.   Having had to use it back when I was
> young and poor and had cheap auto insurance taught me that it is fairly
> worthless and only masochists would willingly subject themselves to its
> use if they could afford any other method.
>

Too many folks in the Atlanta metropolitan area don't want mass transit
because it would allow "the wrong element" to more easily make it out to the
suburbs.  I'm not a masochist, but I'd use MARTA rail if it could get me
from Marietta to Duluth and back in under 2 hours one way.  Sadly, the
northern burbs would rather run their own transit systems instead of pooling
resources and extend coverage to the places that need it.  "Can't have those
thugs and lunatics able to ride out near my house and steal my stuff". . . .
because stealing your stuff using mass transit is so efficient.

But instead the county and state governments decry the increased traffic
while spending more and more money on road construction and maintenance
while doing nothing to address the real problem: all the people in all the
cars.  All because the folks in the 'burbs think the folks riding mass
transit ITP are all "thugs and lunatics" and "we don't want 'the wrong
element' coming out where we live".

If only the cities with good mass transit weren't also the cities where the
winters are cold and bitter.  C'est la vie.

-- 
Dylan Northrup
"Adversity is just change we haven't adapted ourselves to yet."
 - Aimee Mullins
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