Folks,
I may be sarcastic, cynical, curmudgeonly, contrarian, passionate to the
point of being obnoxious, and even occasionally stupid, but I find the American
middle class far too entertaining to ever be nothing more than slightly
annoyed, and only occasionally so. I'm enjoying the show too much to
experience even the least twinge of bitterness.
It's not that I really care, either. I take the attitude Gore Vidal
articulated in an interview back in the 70s. I'm enjoying playing the role of
what he referred to as the "Laughing Cassandra."
It's simply sprawl, no quotation marks needed. Cheap gasoline isn't the
source either. Since its beginings in the Victorian Age, well before the
advent of the automobile, the primary engines of sprawl have been racism, class
neurosis and delusions.
As far as the superiority of "positive reinforcement" over criticism, after
some forty years of "positive reinforcement" Americans are consuming land at a
rate 8 times faster than our population growth. The average new home built
today is more than double the size as the average new home built 40 years, even
though the average American family is now 35 percent smaller than the average
American family in 1970. Ithaca in 1970 accounted for about 45 percent of
Tompkins County's population, thirty-five years after the first Earth Day, it
now accounts for less than 30 percent.
Outside the Cornell campus less than 1 in 40 people does anything other than
jump in a single occupancy vehicle 5 or 6 days a week and drive 5, 10, 15 or
more miles to go to work.
So much for the benefits of "positive reinforcement."
Bike ten miles to a bus stop, on a rural highway with traffic zipping by at
60 miles per hour, and enjoying it?
Give me a break!
The danger aside, the average American balks at walking more than ten minutes
or more than half a mile. I just don't see more than a dozen or so of the
2,500 to 3,000 commuters using Route 96 today jumping on their bikes and
pedaling to and from work 250 days per year.
Buses?
Today the three heavily subsidized TCAT Route 21 buses running between
Trumansburg and Cornell at peak commuting times, at full capacity, can only
carry about 4 percent of the total commuting population, and the majority of
the people riding the bus do so primarily because Cornell picks up the fare. I
pay enough taxes, thank you, without paying more to subsidize somebody's
lifestyle choice of living in T-burg, Jacksonville or points beyond or in
between with added buses.
And yes, nobody is confronting the fact that we have to redefine how and
where we live. I've yet to hear Al Gore or any other public leader stand up
and advocate for re-inhabiting our cities, densifying them and making the car
practically superfluous.
Car Sharing, like the Toyota Prius, is just another attempt to sustain an
environmentally bankrupt lifestyle, not a solution to the problem. The
solution lies in returning to and re-creating our cities as compact, livable,
walkable communities.
Let's take Andy Goodell's news from Bogota. Sure they can close down 70
miles of streets every Sunday, but only because the average family in Bogata
probably doesn't have to own a car, much less two cars. Bogota, like every
other city outside the US and Canada is built very compactly. It has a
population density fifteen times that of the city of Ithaca. As a result,
walking, biking and mass transit are not just viable, but attractive options to
driving.
In fact if Ithaca and its surrounding suburbs were built just one-fifth as
densely as Bogata is, the 50,000 residents would be nestled almost entirely
within the valley between West Hill and East Hill and occupying less than three
square miles instead of 12 square miles of sprawl. Six-Mile Creek would be the
southern boundary of the city and the Commons would be just a quarter-mile from
the countryside. Most destinations would either be within the magical
half-mile/ten minute walking distance, or easily accessible by bike or by the
buses that run every 12-15 minutes, because their routes are condensed to a
mere fraction of their length today.
Ithacans could be enjoying the benefits of burning 60 calories per mile, as I
do, instead of burning 60 cents per mile in an automobile.
The fertile bottomlands from Wegmans to Buttermilk Falls could be gardens,
not parking lots and fast food restaurants big box stores.
I've yet to hear Al Gore talk about such a vision for America, and I'm not
holding my breathe. He's not about to put his celebrity and cash flow at risk
with such "nonsense." Despite my advocacy I don't hold out a lot of hope myself
that the American middle class is suddenly going to overcome 130 years of
brainwashing and a mountain of myths, fears and phobias regarding city life and
Al certainly isn't the type to risk his neck trying to change public attitudes.
So, folks, keep on spreading out, farther and farther, and keep on feeding
Big Oil and the automobile industry, and keep right on pumping five times the
per capita amount of green house gases into the atmosphere as the Chinese do.
According to a recent article in the Ithaca Journal, you're paying an average
of $600 per month, per car, for the privilege.
And please drive safely and carefully as you motor on past the few dozen
people who will actually take to their bikes on May 16th.
George Frantz
Jan Quarles <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
George,
I understand your bitterness about this crazy "sprawl" we developed due to
cheap gasoline, but you can't expect people to sell their homes overnight.
Also, positive reinforcement is more effective than criticism at encouraging
societal change.
Bike-to-Work Day could turn into regular bike commuting because the event
gets people just to try it for one day. When confronting change, the first
step is the most difficult one of all. Imagine: someone borrows a bike for
that day, discovers it's feasible and fun, obtains a bike, and uses it more
and more. That's better than no change at all.
Many of us live beyond the bus line because we chose to own land. We grow
our own vegetables, tend our forests, and are good organic land stewards.
But usually at least one person in the farmhouse holds a job in Ithaca. So
instead of driving 20 miles into town, that person does what s/he can: bikes
or carpools for 10 miles to the nearest Park 'n Ride, and takes the bus the
rest of the way. This type of compromise is far better than driving the
whole way round trip.
It's simply not true that "neither Al Gore nor anybody else" is willing to
confront this problem of sprawl and its transportation challenges.
Sustainable Tompkins, for example, just convened a public meeting on the
topic, with Ithaca Carshare and other groups presenting real solutions.
Ironically, Bike-to-Work Day is one of hundreds of examples that proves the
exact opposite of your assertion. The event demonstrates a willingness to
confront this problem and take action to solve it.
Jan Quarles
----- Original Message -----
From: "George Frantz"
To: "Sustainable Tompkins County listserv"
Sent: Tuesday, May 06, 2008 12:36 PM
Subject: Re: [SustainableTompkins] bike to work
> Noble idea, but why just Bike to Work Day?
>
> Why not Bike to Work Week?
>
> Why not Bike to Work Month?
>
> Why not just everybody just regularly commuting to work by bike?
>
> Oh, that's right. Rather than living in compact, walkable, bikable and
> transit-friendly communities most Americans, including about 80 percent of
> Tompkins County's (non-student) workforce, choose to live in a place where
> any form of journey to work transportation other than the single-occupancy
> automobile is just plain inconvenient.
>
> Another one of those Inconvenient Truths that neither Al Gore nor anybody
> else seems willing to confront.
>
> George Frantz
>
>
>
> Andrejs Ozolins wrote:
> Just alerting folks to a sort of grassroots eruption re Bike to Work Day:
> http://flcycling.org/info/btwd2008/index.shtml
> Please join in if interested and possible.
>
> Andrejs
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