11 February 2010

Conservative Advocate for Transit

Q and A with Bill Lind, the conservative author of Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation:
...With government involvement in canals and railroads and highways, the federal government has been involved in infrastructure from the beginning. This is consistent with a free market economy, because the markets only work if there is adequate infrastructure.

...most conservatives own cars...which means that if they ride transit they ride from choice, not necessity. Which means they want high quality transit, not just something to get around. So the transit that is relative to conservatives is that which is relevant to people with cars ...

...But high speed is a chimera. ...We want to make trains that are time competitive with the automobile - we’re not interested in competing with air travel. Our fuel dependence is seated on cars, not planes. So we want trains running at speeds of up to 110 miles an hour...

...there should definitely be bipartisan support for bringing back streetcars...And we would like to see an expansion of light rail. We think all of these should be electrified and this is an important part of energy security. We would like to see a national consensus going across left and right. It’s simply a matter of bringing back what we had. We threw it away – we subsidized national highways and taxed electric railways...

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I caught "Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City" on pbs a few nights ago. Lots info about history of transportation and the governments role in infrastructure. Interesting watch. Think you would enjoy it.

JFV

CityKin said...

I wanted to see that but missed it.

Quimbob said...

Miles O'Brien hosting a show on transportation ?
heehee
The show is here.
Dunno about the claim that Detroit had the first concrete paved street. Bellefontaine, OH, makes the same claim.