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Op-eds by pinheads.

They actually got to paragraph two before going way, way wrong:

With RTID’s failure at the polls last November, we threw out highway expansion as the answer to our congestion problems.

No we didn’t. ‘We’ threw out an expensive and massive expansion of Sound Transit. Maybe they didn’t notice but there were two gas tax-roads packages approved by voters in the last few years totalling 14.5 cents per gallon of gas. People want roads and they proved it.

Gov. Chris Gregoire and the Legislature have changed the way we look at transportation and global warming – making huge strides towards dealing with the problem.

Who is this ‘we’ they keep referring to? Gregoire didn’t change anything, well, other than increasing spending by 33% in just 3 years. But there’s still time to overturn this garbage, pandering legislation.

It’s only been recently that a few nations that signed on to the Kyoto Agreement have realized they can’t meet the standards. So they’ll either be paying through the nose to the U.N., or they’ll be in violation of the agreement. I’m sure the consequences will be severe. There may be several strongly worded letters coming their way in the future. They’d better watch out.

The point is we haven’t seen the fallout from Gregoire’s legislation yet. But when we do, it will be expensive.

If we make the right decisions, we can transform our communities and free America from our dependence on foreign oil and big oil companies. We need to get started on programs that will provide alternatives.

These people think that there are viable alternatives to fossil fuels for transportation.

There are a couple of technologies that could supplement fossil fuels for our energy needs, but nothing here now or on the horizon will make that happen. The only thing that will ‘free American from dependence on foreign oil’ would be drilling in ANWAR and other areas that these lefties keep preventing through ridiculous lawsuits. Building some nuke plants and clean-burning coal fired plants might help a little as well.

Just look at the problems that demand for crops to make biofuels has caused in the food supply. Speculative commodities trading has driven the prices of corn and wheat up over 50%. With it goes the price of meat and dairy as well, since animals have to eat something and that something is getting more expensive.

One of the things that always bothers me about liberals is that they don’t think things through. I recall hearing from economists early on that mandating biofuel use would affect the price of some crops. If legislators in Olympia had gotten the facts before they pandered to the leftwing special interest groups that fund their campaigns they might have realized that actions have consequences and that the law of unintended consequences could have dramatic repercussions for the poor and the elderly on fixed incomes. But that will be all right. They’ll just pass a bill that will spend more money to help those that are hit hardest by rising food and fuel prices. And I’m sure they’ll find some way to blame it on the President. He is a Republican, you know, so it must be his fault.

Planning agencies need to consider the impacts of their projects on greenhouse gas emissions. We need to know that our investments will serve our transportation needs and fight global warming pollution.

They tried to build a ‘carbon footprint analysis’ requirement into Prop. 1 last year. I couldn’t find it in the actual legislation so I’m guessing they dropped it from the earlier draft which I read. They were also able to get the legislature and governor to pass other legislation that has a similar effect. But as always, the law of unintended consequences will strike again and it will shut down more roads projects and tie them up in court, causing the costs to sky-rocket which will give these anti-automobile lefties more to complain about (even though they will undoubtedly cause it). I guess they figure a ‘carbon footprint analysis’ will pick up the projects that they can’t stop with salmon run complaints and lawsuits.

We can make the most of our valuable highways with electronic tolling, such as the Tacoma Narrows bridge high-tech transponder technology. Variable pricing, like the pilot HOT lane project about to start on Highway 167, will provide incentives for drivers to use transit, car pool, time their trips for off-peak or eliminate unneeded trips.

Of course. Congestion pricing. Just click on the link for my comments on that.

Improved transit options financed by tolls means that households can reduce the enormous expense of car ownership, which averages $8,000 a year, and it can provide new mobility options for those who can’t afford, or are physically unable, to drive. Taxpayers will save billions by avoiding the expense of new highways. We can reduce air pollution, water pollution and global warming impacts by taking cars off the road.

Wrong. First of all, how will tolls reduce the expense of car ownership? They increase the cost of car ownership. Taxpayers won’t save billions, they’ll just pay billions more in taxes. Do these people read what they write?

Take a fresh look at the arterials and local streets in our communities, where every trip starts and ends. Tacoma has shown the way with Link light rail, giving it priority on downtown streets.

Translation: poorly time traffic signals are a good thing to these people.

Seattle, Kirkland and Redmond have adopted “Complete Streets” policies so streets will accommodate walking, biking and transit, not just autos. It is successful in Portland, and it is a tool that should be adopted statewide.

Apparently it’s not a success in Seattle, Kirkland or Redmond or they would have said so. This is just another attempt to make it more difficult, time consuming and expensive to operate an automobile. What these twits fail to mention (or maybe they just haven’t thought it through) is that transit, walking and biking won’t work for most people. So the net effect will be making life more difficult for innocent and vulnerable people.

Put homes near job centers and transit: Providing affordable homes in walkable, transit-rich communities makes it easy to leave the car at home. Zoning changes and infrastructure investments can support ample, affordable housing near job centers and transit stations. Again, Tacoma leads the way with its downtown revitalization.

How many ways can they go wrong in one paragraph. Some people don’t want to live where everyone else does. Government can’t mandate it (that’s fascism) so it isn’t going to happen. Look at it this way, those places are already available so if people wanted that kind of living, they would have moved there already. They also don’t understand real estate. If everyone wants to (or has to because of government mandates) move to these wonderful, utopian neighborhoods, that will drive down the value of the properties that people would have to sell in order to afford a place in little utopia. And as more people want to move to there, the prices will go up. So the people who are supposed to move there won’t be able to because the bottom fell out of the market in their old neighborhood. What are these people smoking?

Invest in transit: High gas prices mean that commuters are using transit in record numbers. As to the question of light rail, bus rapid transit, streetcars or plain old bus service, our answer is: “Yes.”

And when prices drop people will go back to their cars for the convenience, time-savings and privacy. Don’t forget that Tacoma’s ‘Link-to-nothing Light Rail’ cost taxpayers $84 million to build and costs about $2.5 million per year (and growing) to operate. But Sound Transit won’t even calculate the real numbers. They hide the cost of building the system in a footnote referenced next to a ‘per trip’ cost that is about half of the actual cost to taxpayers. We don’t even know yet what the per trip cost will be in Seattle.

The Sound Transit board needs to show the public a great plan in 2008 for light rail, commuter rail and express bus service. A proposed extension of the Link light rail to the Stadium District and Tacoma Community College would jump-start the re-establishment of a highly effective streetcar system that can reduce car trips, traffic congestion and greenhouse gas emissions in Tacoma.

I think what this frustrated cheerleader is trying to say is that he thinks that people would actually use those stupid system. What he fails to consider is that rail of any kind is less valuable the further you get from one of its stops. Someone who lives or works a block from a rail station is far more likely to use rail than someone who lives 10 blocks away. And since the little utopias would likely turn the rest of the suburban areas into slums, no one will be able to afford the taxes required to pay for those systems.

The link between global warming and our driving habits can’t be swept under the rug. Once the dust settles, the solutions that will work best for our region are crystal clear. We can develop a well- running transportation system that is fair, clean and dependable.

I don’t want it to be swept under the rug. When ‘the dust settles’ I think it will be clear that global warming was really just the next version of the old ‘coming ice age’ that will never come. After the winter we just had it’s amazing to me that anyone could believe the earth is actually warming. Then again, these are the same people who are trying to sweep the scientific evidence under the rug which shows that claims of anthropogenic global warming may be premature and exaggerated.

Our children will thank us for getting our house in order.

But will they thank us for the humongous debt we’ll be leaving them if these pinheads are allowed to have their way with our taxes? Somehow, I doubt it.

Here’s more form SoundPolitics.com and the Washington Policy Center.

Update: Speaking of poorly timed traffic lights, I was on Pacific Ave. in Tacoma today and had to wait for one of the light rail cars to go by. The problem was that after it passed by it wasn’t until it was a block away that the traffic signal actually stopped flashing that it was coming. The other train had passed and was going in the other direction so that wasn’t the issue.

Maybe the city’s traffic engineers could take a closer look at the problem. It would be nice to not have to sit at a traffic light that is red for no reason as my car spews greenhouse gases into the air. But as I pointed out above, liberals seem to think that poorly timed traffic signals are a good idea. Go figure.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 12:16 am and is filed under BlogNetNews.com, FeedTacoma.com, Tacoma Contradictions, Transportation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.