Saturday, April 28, 2007

Great Britain's great traffic debate

Think London's better off since it implemented congestion pricing?

London's traffic 'fix' nothing to write home about

Think again!

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

The Emporer is starting to show off his new clothes and the people are realizing that he isn't wearing any.

Anonymous said...

Look guys, the automobile is wasteful and a major source of global warming and pollution.

Auto use in China, India, Russia, and most of the world is skyrocketing. The problems from cars will start to grow at a faster pace.

Fossil fuels will peak out within a decade or so.

Where is the issue here? The faster we clamp down on cars the better.

Remember three simple words if we are ever get a handle on everything from quality of life to global warming to overdevopment:

ZERO POPULATION GROWTH!

Anonymous said...

Oh I agree that the automobile is wasteful but why not encourage people to buy environmentally friendly electric cars rather than punish people who don't have readily accessible public transportation near them?

Anonymous said...

Imagine if the people who could take public transportation but drive suddenly all took public transportation. Oh God, what a nightmare.

Anonymous said...

You know how many people get killed or injured on the road each year?

Take 10 years of the Vietnam War and reduce that mayhem to a year to two.

It is inexcusible.

Anonymous said...

Your stats are nice but the fact is that most of the country does not have a public transportation system.

Anonymous said...

No one is against reducing traffic and pollution. But CP should be citywide, not just in the most expensive parts of the city. Bloomberg's plan will just increase parts of the city that have express transportation stations (Flushing, Forest Hills, LIC).

Many of us moved out of Manhattan because we're environmentally conscious and didn't want to limit our children's intake of pollution. But under the plan, these areas will be one big park n' ride.

Why start it at 86th St? Do you know anyone who works at 81st and West End Ave?

The fact is Manhattanites knew exactly what they were getting into, yet still paid thousands per square foot. And stop with all this about 'the children'. We have children in Queens and Brooklyn, too.

Anonymous said...

Posting an Opinion piece from someone from the "Association of British Drivers" is supposed to convince me that congestion pricing is no good?

Come on, QC. This is not exactly an unbiased source. I guess you couldn't find any truly objective person/organization who says that London's plan is not working.

People in the city do not have the absolute right to drive anywhere they want anytime they want. Congestion pricing will have many benefits for the entire city. As long as the money raised will go towards improving public transportation, everyone in the city should support this.

Queens Crapper said...

See NY Press article dated 4/22, posted here 4/23.

Anonymous said...

The money raised for this will go towards improving public transportation between Manhattan and New Jersey. Please explain how this benefits Queens, FH Guy.

Anonymous said...

Isn't it a curiosity that those who are here now spout the phrase "Zero Population Growth". Too bad the idea wasn't implemented before they came along.

Population, Global warming, traffic congestion, Oil, food etc.. These are the "concerns" of the far, far leftists who want to control and regulate everyone else, but be left alone.

Carbon offsets, congestion offsets, population offsets. There's always a grifter pushing for regulation (and exemptions for sale).

Taco shells have tripled, quadrupled in price because Brazil is diverting all its corn over for ethanol. Ethanol is worthless - its pollution may be worse than from regular gasoline. But, in the meantime, the poor find food is more expensive.

Yeah! Global warming grifters!

Anonymous said...

From Mr ZPG

I grew up with a car and loved to drive a car.

I made a choice to stop in 73. One of the reasons I moved to NYC was the energy efficient lifestyle in transportation and living choices.

For anyone with half a brain this looming crunch was noticable decades ago. Far left? No just use all my grey mattter.

Anonymous said...

A city can be compared to a garden.

If it gets choked up to the max with weeds or overbuilding there's little to be done after the fact.

It's time to pull up the weeds before the real flowers.....the residents.....can't breathe anymore and die out!

Alas.....but that's not going to happen! Who ever heard of demolishing ugly tall buildings?

Perhaps a moratorium on building? Nah....you won't see this either! This would interrupt the money stream from developer to politician etc!

Congestion pricing is just a band-aid on an, ultimately, fatal disease!