Tuesday, February 21, 2017

No silver bullet?

There is one main problem in today's cities. It is the private auto. How did this happen. Was it just free market forces? No, by now you should know that free markets are a fairy tale believed only by honest libertarians... and good luck finding one of those!

Car dominance started in the US, with the premeditated destruction of the street car.

It would be nice to paint some lines on the road and suddenly go back to cycling, but that's not going to happen.

The car system, autosprawl, is much more that just cars. It is a massive infrastructure that cost trillions to build and costs trillions to maintain. It is heavily subsidized. People do not see the subsidy. They think cars came from the Garden of Eden and have always been the only way to get around.

When buses are fare-free, it will begin a snowball effect undermining the critical mass of autosprawl. The subsidy will be seen as a burden and cars will lose political power.

Bang.