(speaking of pent-up hostility)
It's funny, almost all my friends who are fierce pro-bike (and do things like participate in Critical Mass) are among the least safe vehicle drivers on the road. They often completely blow stop signs, perform unsafe manuvers while waiting for cross-traffic to clear so they can blow lights, randomly don't wear helmets ("Hey, where's your helmet today?" "Oh, I forgot it"), yell at cars (car drivers aren't the only ones who yell, and they seem proud of their "keying" ability).
I'm not saying that it isn't tough to be on a bike (or that car drivers are angels), I'm just saying that the holier-than-thou attitude that comes from people on bikes is laughable: I've listened to a group of bike-centric people bitch and moan about car drivers and then ride away on the wrong side of the street.
> Who actually believes that public transport will improve (in
> the US) until driving a private motor vehicle is made as
> uncomfortable, expensive, and inconvienient as possible?
My question is: why do you have to chose? What an attitude that is. The fact is that in some places public transportation HAS improved, without any of the anti-car rhetoric ... in fact, I'd guess that car use has increased right along with it. Cars are here, get used to it.
> I would agree that the "car culture" i.e. using private autos
> as status symbols needs to be destroyed ...
I don't know about Moscow, but in the US the 'status' issue is more about WHICH car you have, not that you have a car at all. And really, if people buy a car for status reasons (and not to drive it?), who cares? It helps GDP, I'm all for stupid over-consumption. The real question is how much do they drive it and what kinds of alternatives do we give people? I never understood why people get bent out of shape to hear that someone has 3 cars. Who cares? They can't drive all three at once, so presumably the total driving they do is what counts. Give someone 365 cars, and watch them use each one once per year and who cares? There was a time when my (two-person) household had 4 vehicles; the total miles driven that year by all four was under 5,000.
> A better way is public policy e.g. the so-called planned congestion
> policy which severely restricts automobile access to urban areas
> by parking restrictions and tolls.
It's only better if, while you do that, you provide alternatives and incentives (especially to lower income workers); just taking away the only available infrastructure is dumb. But really: parking meters and restrictions, along with toll booths, cause congestion, pollution, and road rage. They gotta go.
/jordan