Date: Mon, 9 Dec 2002 20:19:38 -0500 (EST)
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <kfl at KeithLynch.net>
To: WSFAList at KeithLynch.net
Subject: [WSFA] Re: Transportation TANSTAAFL
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

I think it's important to distinguish between the public way and
government-maintained roads.

By "the public way" I mean a network of unmaintained roads which costs
nobody anything.  Everyone is free to use them, so long as they don't
block or imperil other users.

I favor the public way, but I oppose government-maintained roads in
excess of what are needed for national defense.

I don't think that transit would require subsidies if we ended the far
more enormous subsidies that motor vehicles receive.

If everyone who wanted electricity needed a generator in their home,
or if everyone who wanted to communicate needed a radio set in their
home, we'd quite rightly bemoan the dismal state of the power grid
and the telephone system.  Especially if running the generator and
the radio set required someone's full attention, and if a moment's
distraction was quite likely to lead to the death of everyone in or
near one's home.

But this is precisely the state of our transportation system.
--
Keith F. Lynch - kfl at keithlynch.net - http://keithlynch.net/
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