car-free Europe

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Sep 20 21:28:02 PDT 1999


[bounced for an address oddity]

Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 00:01:09 -0400 From: Enrique Diaz-Alvarez <enrique at ee.cornell.edu>

Stephen E Philion wrote:


>
> I think perhaps James is relying on the common senseical working class
> response to questions like, "Would you like to own a nice new car?"...But
> if they are asked if they would like efficient, comfortable, and cheap
> public transportation, even those who think of themeselves as 'middle
> class' will be quite interested in the idea.

What makes you think so?

In Europe, 85% of passenger-miles are travelled by private car. This is so even though gas taxes and highway tolls, together with excellent subsidized public transportation, make cars the most expensive option most of the time.

People sure like cars. Bad, naughty people. As DeLong put it, let's dissolve them and elect new ones.

Enrique



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