This may be a surprise to Barack Obama, but roads were not built for business. They were built for pedestrians, then horses, then bicycles. And that’s the end of it as far as Mayor Bloomberg is concerned. Cars are just clogging up roads creating traffic jams for mass transit. Stop it.
Bloomberg says mass transit, cyclists ‘more important’ than drivers who clog roads
Speaking at a transportation conference at New York University, Bloomberg said people often forget streets weren’t made for cars.
“The streets were there to transport people,” he said. “They are not for cars … One of the original ways was walking.”
Mass transit is the only way to stop the economy-crushing gridlock that plagues urban centers, he said.
“Cyclists and pedestrians and bus riders are as important, if not, I would argue more important, than automobile riders,” he said.
Since roads pre-dated cars, it is technically true roads were not built for cars. They were, however, built generically for transportation. Today that includes the privately owned automobile, the invention of which continuously irks the Left. All that personal independence leading to urban sprawl and ruining everything. How much better to cram populations into dense areas and make them wait in the snow and rain for the bus that may or may not arrive on time or ever. Densely packed populations may be more congenial to regulation and control too. Now there’s a bandwagon Mayor Bloomberg would hop on.
This just in, a Mr. Ford says; my automobiles weren’t built for sidewalks.
Well, since Bloomy lives in a multi-gazillion $$$ townhouse in Manhattan (the Mayor’s residence, Gracie Mansion, is apparently not posh enough for Hizzoner) he has no need to drive to work. But the consequence of his view on cyclists vs. motorists (don’t know if it is an intended or unintended consequence) is that the newly-constructed bicycle lanes have ruined every street in which they were placed; instead of parking at the curb, such as is done in normal cities, the bike lanes, near the curbs, take out the parking spaces, and so the cars park practically in middle of the street, causing traffic to slow.
Rudy Giuliani was the best mayor we ever had; Bloomberg is one of the worst.
oh where is Robert Moses when you need him!! Would love to have seen a showdown between Bloom and Moses. Moses had a track record of wins, even as he destroyed whole swaths of the city, and I am sure he’s turning in his grave listening to this rubbish.
If he wants to go there, well, ORIGINALLY people were allowed to own weapons and protect themselves. ORIGINALLY people were allowed to eat and drink whatever they wanted. ORIGINALLY in this country the leaders actually believed people had rights. ORIGINALLY people actually took responsibility for themselves and didn’t WANT the Governments help.
Bloomberg is a tool. If people didn’t need 4-wheeled transportation then we’d only have foot paths. Automobiles evolved from 4-wheeled horse drawn vehicles. Buggies; sulkies; wagons; fire wagons; coaches; and farm implements needed roads. And many of the wagons had a larger footprint than the cars of today.
Mass transit: Everyone has heard the old cliche’, why do trains and buses run on schedule in Europe but we can’t do it here? Well, we have an answer. All of the trains and buses over there are privately owned and not operated by government or subsidized by government. R & R have hit on one of my pet peeves. AMTRACK funding needs to be eliminated. If a railroad can’t survive on its own assets, then there isn’t any need for it.
@trevy – I like where you’re going with that! Because ORIGINALLY, we used to HANG traitors. ORIGINALLY, we used to hang horse thieves (car thieves take notice). ORIGINALLY, everyone knew they had to work to get food. And ORIGINALLY, able bodied people who refused to work, well… they were called vagrants and run out of town, if not thrown in jail.
Those really were the good old days.