While I applaud the efforts to look into transportation alternatives, there was one thing that really confused me with the talk about podcars tonight. It was mostly focused on how much traffic we have, how our gasoline use cannot continue with cars, how inconvenient TCAT might be, and in general how hard it is to get around Ithaca and Tompkins Cty.
Well, if there is one thing in sustainability that we NEED to focus on, it is happiness. I'm all for talking about transportation alternatives, but making every system look bad except the one that costs millions of dollars and involves major infrastructure change is not going to get us far. I moved to Ithaca because I knew that I could live car-free. I looked forward to using Ithaca Carshare, TCAT busses, my bikes, and my two feet for getting around instead of owning my own car. At the talk tonight I felt like I was in another city. We don't need new infrastructure and we don't need expensive new systems. So far ocean liners, locomotives, dirigibles, airplanes, and personal cars have all seen their peak moments and are proving to be money sinks that only cost more as time goes on. To fantasize that podcars are any different seems a bit irrational to me. It was neat to get the information, but I still strongly favor on the side of relocalization rather than creating new ways to get around that require such an investment and enormous system to be functional. If podcars mean less cars on the road, less energy used overall, and happier communities than I would welcome them. But unless we ban cars, it will just be a new toy to play with. _______________________________________________ For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ RSS, archives, subscription & listserv information for: [email protected] http://lists.mutualaid.org/mailman/listinfo/sustainabletompkins free hosting by http://www.mutualaid.org
