NAC's senior editor will head home this weekend from a jaunt around the Great Lakes states that included brewery visits (damn him), the Great Taste of the Midwest beer festival (damn him), and a Radiohead concert (triple dog damn him). If we lived in a country that hadn't spent the past fifty years decimating its transportation infrastructure, he could've done it all without need of a car.
His return from a previous European excursion prompted the following words:
I biked from the suburban Vienna pension to the underground, loaded the bike on it, and debarked a kilometer from Westbahnhof station. The bike was loaded onto an express train for a seven hour journey to Frankfurt central station, walked around the corner to a waiting hotel, then walked back the same route early this morning. I put it on an S (suburban) train, and got off at the airport. The bike was repacked, with a switch in Cincy. Back in Louisville, there was a theoretical possibility of finding TARC connections to New Albany, and without the case, I might have pedaled home.
But you know the rest of the story: Diana picked me up, and home we went. How much again are we planning on spending to build more bridges for more traffic, and more sprawl requiring more bridges ...
As is, we struggle to get across town.
Imagine my teeth gritting, then, to read in the Evening News/Tribune this morning that Jeffersonville is making headway in implementing a TARC park and ride, beginning construction in anticipation of bus routes rather than blithely waiting for some regressive coalition to force it upon them like so many bridges.
TARC park and ride work to start soon by David A. Mann
It's not that I'm not happy for them. It's just that I'd like to be happy for us, especially since many of us have been suggesting the exact same thing for New Albany for so long. Becoming a transportation leader would do more to propel the city toward full blown revitalization than any of us could individually, helping to make us a city of choice for those with means and giving those of lesser means opportunities for choice. Our chance to be first may be diminished but our chance to be better isn't.
Get out and enjoy this beautiful day in our walkable downtown. Just remember how nice it could be to share it with others - if they could get here without thousands of dollars of personal investment.
You need not have to be in Europe for such a bike gig, I'll be off to Portland,OR i September and will have TRIMET to get to and fro from the airport and many other venues. Also, San Francisco has many of the same options; life with out a car.
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Lots of lessons from Portland, Ed. We just need more people willing to learn.
ReplyDeletewell you know our good ole mayor dougie is one of the biggest proponents of the new bridges strategy, I guess his ties to the industrial development special interests are so strong that he cant endorse any other options like better mass transit and environmentally friendly transportation, but hey he was the progressive candidate wasnt he?
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, eco, Mayor England is a proponent of conversion to two-way streets, bicycle paths, and a pedestrian/bike bridge for the Greenway instead of one for automobiles. That's progressive and we've given him credit for it.
ReplyDeleteHe's just recently given a positive nod to the bridges project. I don't think that qualifies him as "one of the biggest proponents" but it is worthy of criticism, which he received on these pages as well.
he has been a bridges proponent since the late 1980's check is history and you will see he is not some johnny come lately to this bridge mantra
ReplyDeleteI part company with the mayor on the prospect of another downtown auto bridge. That didn't even come into play until 1994.
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