“Massachusetts’ car economy is roughly $64.1 billion, with more than half of that coming from public funds…”
Using publicly available data, the authors put the annual public tab at $35.7 billion, which amounts to about $14,000 for every household in the state. Those that do own vehicles pony up an additional $12,000 on average in direct costs.
Holy guacamole.
Imagine how many frickin grassy trams we could have with that amount of money.
Hey there is a reason why ain’t got money for public transit infrastructure… Now we know.
Kansas City had 300 miles of street cars and a very walkable city. After WWII they bulldozed entire streets to make room for interstates. Then replaced about half the remaining. Buildings with parking lots.
It killed the downtown. It has slowly improved, but to this day it has never recovered.
You can blame GM and their secret front company, National City Lines. They bought streetcar companies around America and dismantled the lines.
Three years ago and no one has batted an eye, the automotive industry has already gripped tight and there is little in the short-term to loosen that chokehold. I guess it starts locally, small changes can add up very quickly. Lose the car, ride a bike, begin telling people about how wasteful vehicles are, share stuff like this. Get friends thinking about clean alternatives.
Individual action is ineffective here sadly
It was effective in Denmark
Practically that’s the only action currently available in the US.
A lot of changes for car centric design and zoning can be made at the local levels of government. If a community can rally together and want change, it can be done. This is one of those few problems where individual actions can have significant impacts.
Lose the car, ride a bike,
Hardly an option in a lot of places due to weather and car centric infrastructure
I think this is an easy way out of doing anything. I don’t think that’s entirely accurate, and it’s probably the reasoning that has made cars so ubiquitous across many countries. Cars can still have their uses, but depending on them for everything is excessive and harmful for our communities.
What’s that? The Big Dig wasn’t a great use of money? You’ve got to be kidding.
WDYM? The Big Dig fixed traffic, right? /s
