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The authors are calling on national and local governments to set targets for the proportion of trips made on foot, by bicycle and by public transport, including national targets of:
- Doubling the proportion of trips walked to 25 per cent by 2050.
- Doubling the proportion of cycling trips in each of the next decades, with the ultimate goal of 15 per cent of all trips being on bicycles by 2050.
- Increasing the proportion of all trips by public transport to 15 per cent by 2050.
The report's authors further recommend:
- The government develop a national promotion and education campaign to persuade people to walk or cycle to schools and work-places
- That investment is made in liveable cities and creating urban environments designed for people, rather than cars
- That new regulations are introduced to make walking and cycling safer
The report prominently cites health concerns as a key reason to not drive, because people need to exercise more. Is it a tacit acknowledgement of electric vehicles' (EVs) imminent takeover of global car fleets?
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Urgent Action Needed to End Our Love Affair with Cars, Report Finds
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I'm gliding over a NUCLEAR WASTE DUMP near ATLANTA, Georgia!!
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday April 30 2019, @05:36AM (3 children)
Somewhere between the polar extremes of political systems there are islands of stasis where individual freedom and collective action co-exist in a creative tension. The individual has no reason to pull on rubber boots and a slicker and answer a call to repair a burst sewer main in the middle of the night when he's dead tired and his kid is sick. Collective action has no reason to not steamroll the artist who paints upsetting pictures. But the tension between the two gets individuals to work together, even when they really don't want to, because the longer term benefit is greater than the short term discomfort, and constrains the collective from crushing the individual because the longer term benefit of multiple perspectives outweighs the immediate comfort of conformity.
Sustainable economy, too, lives somewhere in one of those islands of stability. The US spends $365 billion every year on oil; it would be incredibly economically beneficial to not spend that money on oil, but rather on, say, incentives for entrepreneurs and small businesses. But it would not be beneficial to take all the gas-powered cars and trucks away tomorrow, hand everybody a Schwinn, and tell them haughtily to 'figure it out.'
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by The Shire on Tuesday April 30 2019, @02:57PM
There has always been an understanding, at least in the US, that common infrastructure is necessary to make capitalism work at it's best. This is one of the valid reasons for governments to exist - to "grease the wheels" of industry. And it does that by maintaining roads and sewage and other infrastructure components we all need.
In a free capitalist society everyone is offered a CHANCE to improve their lot in life. No one is given a guarantee of success, only the chance to work your way up. It is a merit based system for the most part. If you have skills then you can succeed. It's not the purpose of government to tell you how to live or to attempt to improve the life of someone who is unwilling to try to improve their life themselves. This is already a massive burden on the rest of us that makes the $365 billion we pay for oil based energy look like a drop in the ocean.
That being said, in my opinion these alarmist articles are entirely useless. In the US we are already on the long road towards electric cars, solar, wind, and nuclear power generation. There is no need to try to immediately shift the entire country. The world will be fine while it waits for gas powered cars to slowly get replaced. But never again will it be practical to take your bike to work or to get groceries unless you live very close to your grocery store. Virtually all communities are spread far apart and the distances to local services are too great for manual transport. Walking and biking is relegated to recreation except in very rare situations.
(Score: 2) by Oakenshield on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:24PM (1 child)
Non sequitur. The fact that the US spends 365 billion dollars on oil means nothing in a vacuum. The impact of reallocating that money to another resource can only be determined when the change in GDP, unemployment, etc is considered. If that 365 billion creates 500 billion in wealth but would only create 200 billion were it reallocated, the answer is obvious.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday May 01 2019, @01:30PM
$365 billion on foreign oil, ie. Money paid to places like saudi arabia.
Washington DC delenda est.