Crash
- Posted by ryan on August 26th, 2008 filed in In the News
TOW makes some excellent points about streetcars. And he quotes a good one from Dave Reid at Urban Milwaukee:
As a society we say “don’t drink and drive” but in this case actions speak louder than words. Zoning and land use policies have an impact on the built environment that often promotes driving and limits other transportation options. These regulations to some extent mandate how we get home from work and unfortunately how we get from the tavern, home.
I think Yglesias has made this same point before, but it’s always good to reiterate the many ways transit can be good for safety. As an adult, I enjoy that I can get home from bars in this city, quickly and easily, by walking or taking transit or hailing a cab. As an occasional driver, I’m very happy to know that other people have those options, as well. This goes for other stuff, too. Young drivers are dangerous to themselves and others. I’d rather my sixteen year old (if I had one) be able to get around via transit than be in a car all the time, and I’m glad sixteen year olds in this city have a transit option. Ditto for older drivers.
Driving is an inherently dangerous act–you’re piloting an enormous hunk of metal around at high speed–and should only be done by sober, competent adults who are preferably not distracted by phones or dinner or make-up or the newspaper. It would be nice if those who weren’t competent adults or sober could get around without a car, and it would be nice if more people who wanted to read or talk on the phone during their commute could do so without driving. Maybe then, we wouldn’t be celebrating 41,000 annual traffic deaths as a good year for highway safety.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:21 am
This has also been my initial reaction to the recent calls to lower the drinking age. Opponents argue that this will cause an increase in drunk driving fatalities.
Seems to me that the problem with drunk driving often has more to do with the driving than the drinking.
August 26th, 2008 at 10:27 am
Thanks for the link to UrbanMilwaukee!
August 26th, 2008 at 11:28 am
I can’t tell you how many times I have explained this concept to Europeans. They are always so confused how we can have a higher drinking age yet have a problem with drinking and driving. I explain to them that our forebears made the decision to gut and abandon our cities in favor of worthless (without cheap gas) ugly sprawl. The drunk driving issue is an unintended consequence of our nation’s choice to ruin its communities (and force people to drive just to go to the bathroom or something).
I remember being in Sweden and Amsterdam as 14 year old to play in an international youth soccer tournament. I remember seeing a lot of kids my age or a little older stumbling around on the trams clearly drunk. I remember that by that time in my life I already understood that drinking is not inherently bad, despite the attempts of brainwashing at the hands of DARE. I knew that it was operating heavy machinery while drunk that was truly dangerous. I was so jealous of those kids. They had girls (disclaimer: I’m a 27yo man so that’ll affect the perspective of this comment) with them that were intoxicated too. I was so jealous. They got so much attention from (intoxicated) girls than I ever did at that age. Come to think of it, I got more attention over there while I was there than I ever did at home. Maybe being able to socialize in an environment where drinking and driving was not an issue because the land use and infrastrucure let them go have fun and drink without having to drive had something to do with it? I’m getting away from the topic of this post, but I just can’t get past how much sprawl is bad for actually living life day in and day out.
August 26th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
@Ryan Thanks for the link and kind words. It’s just crazy how we have created so many of our own problems. Drunk driving, well spend billions making sure people live as far from other services as possible. Cost of energy oh same issue. Loss of community… and on and on.. Thanks Again.