The other need we have in America is to transform the transportation system, making it less damaging to the environment, stop its contribution to global warming, shift us off fossil fuels and the ecological and political harm those fuels cause around the world.
The existing transportation system was built over the last hundred years or so, and in large part the system of bridges and highways cemented in place a transportation system of gasoline or diesel powered vehicles, driven on rubber tires, on asphalt roads. Prior to this model there had been an extensive system of electric rail lines around cities, as well as the horses and buggies, etc. That has been supplanted by rubber tires, asphalt roads, and fossil fuels in the form of diesel and gasoline.
On one level the transportation infrastructure is an investment our society makes in supporting the flow of commerce around cities. The better the infrastructure, the better the flow of commerce, and the better off we all are because economic conditions are better. Supposedly.
On another level the transportation infrastructure cements, literally, into place certain transportation choices. In today’s American cities the transportation infrastructure is dominated by rubber tires, asphalt roads, and fossil fuels in the form of diesel and gasoline. As a consequence there are a litany of negative side effects including environmental degradation, climate change, political meddling in oil countries that leads to violent wars, geopolitical negative karma heaped upon the U.S., land use horrors like endless parking lots, unwalkable cities forcing Americans into a sedentary unhealthy lifestyle, etc.
There is a call to invest in fixing the transportation infrastructure so that we can have jobs so that the economy can be straightened out. Following that path means reaffirming the current transportation infrastructure, and all its negative consequences.
Ponder an example, “Think of how many JOBS Darth Vader created building that Death Star”. Some JOBS have a purpose to build death, and some JOBS have a purpose to build health. What will it be?
- Highway design could decrease death and injury risk, if “we” chose smarter designs - March 28, 2015
- GM really did trademark “range anxiety”, only later to abandon that mark - March 25, 2015
- US Government releases new regulations on hydraulic fracturing, that some call “toothless” - March 20, 2015
- Tesla Motors magic pill to solve range anxiety doesn’t quite instill range confidence - March 19, 2015
- Update on Galena IL oil train – 21 cars involved, which were the supposedly safer CP1232 design - March 7, 2015
- Another oil bomb train – why are they shipping crude oil by train? – Symptoms of fossil fuel addiction - March 6, 2015
- Chevron relinquishes fracking in Romania, as part of broader pull-out from Eastern European fracking operations - February 22, 2015
- Answer anti- electric car articles with truth and pride – truth outshines all distortions - February 19, 2015
- Apple taking big risk on developing a car? Please, Apple, don’t go there! - February 16, 2015
- Toyota, Nissan, Honda working on Japanese fuel cell infrastructure for Japanese government - February 12, 2015
