Ahnoldt, the car manufacturer's wurst nightmare
So California's getting all gung ho about climate change. That's nice. And it's tackling it by... suing the bastards. Well, it's the American way, right?
Now, I haven't been to the US, ever, not even a little bit. But I hear things. For instance, I hear that in a lot of American cities (Houston is often mentioned), it's practically impossible to get around without a car. Not just because of the distances, and the lousy public transport. More because there aren't actually any pavements (sidewalks, to the Yanks). Roads are for driving on. Cities are for driving in. Wouldn't it be a good idea to give the citizenry an actual option before slamming the car industry?
O'course, San Francisco and LA do appear to have functioning public transport systems (so I gather from my blogroll), so maybe going after the cars is *completely* sensible. What do I know.
3 comments:
Washington, D.C. is entirely public transport-friendly; indeed, somewhat car-unfriendly. Manhattan likewise. Bit odd to take sprawly ol' Houston as the archetypal American city, innit?
I stand corrected.
The global warming book I've just read, Half Gone, gives a scary example of the reason why some American cities don't have a good public transport system: apparently LA had a beautifully-designed transit system in the 30s, and one of the oil consortiums bought it up and closed it down, thus forcing more people to buy cars. Scary stuff.
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