"Grumblings in the activist community down here are suggesting that the most effective method for affecting real change and grabbing attention is to make the concern an economic concern among the companies located here, but an economic hit that they will take personally. Pressure from the federal government can certainly help, but from what we've seen locally, such pressure usually translates into what the common, individual citizen must do - give up the car, change traffic habits, use mass transit that really doesn't work for the majority, and incur significant increases in cost of living and hits on the working poor/middle class pocket books. Hence, we have talk of more tollroads, pay-per-use HOV lanes, increased bus fare, and limited light rail."
absolutely agreed, here, and this was even raised (astonishingly enough) in the npr piece. there was a nice quote from a guy saying, we're supposed to quit using our cars, but the main sources of the pollution aren't doing their part. my recollection is that the strategy is to scare the chamber of commerce (which is called something else in houston, right?) into getting commitments from the relevant businesses to make the appropriate changes.
in mexico city, where the smog is far worse than any us city, when they hit particularly noxious periods their response is to cut the number of cars on the road. they do this through a system in which (basically) cars with "even" license plates and "odd" license plates drive on alternate days. of course, (a) all the people with money in mexico city have two cars, anyway, which is not taken account of in the system -- or it least it wasn't a few years ago, and (b) it completely ignores the industry in the city. try going to mexico city around christmas -- you'll see beautiful mountains that are invisible 50 weeks a year. that's because so much shuts down. yeah, people aren't commuting to work as much, but not that many people stop driving.
j
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