I hate cars
News yesterday that Auckland’s public transport system was going to get a funding boost unleashed a three-party tag-team of outrage. Three of the four parties of the past (United was having a day off) launched press releases into the mediosphere.
Act leader Rodney Hide: “gutless … weak … negligent … running scared.”
National transport spokesperson Maurice Williamson: “outrageous … very sinister … dirty work at the crossroads … betrayed.”
NZ First deputy leader Peter Brown: “ludicrous … infuriating.”
All this outrage left Keith all alone in applauding the decision of the Auckland Regional Land Transport Committee to allocate $3.48 billion to public transport.
So, what were the past parties really frothing at the mouth about? Well, as is often the case, Rodney Hide distilled down their arguments nicely in his blog:
Lefties hate cars and they hate roads. Cars and roads allow us the freedom to live and work where we choose, and to go where we please, when we please.
Lefties know what’s best for us and want to be able to dictate.
And so through government incompetence and lefty activism our roads have been run down for 30 years. The fault? To the lefties, it’s our love of cars… but the fault is the lack of roads.
The lefties want trains and buses that they control to ferry us about.
This level of analysis is somewhat difficult to engage with, but let’s have a go.
If Rodney can show me a single large city in the world (i.e. one million plus population) where more and more roads have gone even a little way to solving congestion problems (let alone the associated catastrophic environmental consequences), I’d be very, very surprised. No, gobsmacked.
Meanwhile, I’ll be able to show him countless cities where one of the following two scenarios has played out:
1) More and more and more roads have just simply encouraged more and more people to become more and more dependent on cars, meaning congestion is just as bad - it’s just spread across more roads.
2) An adequately funded public transport system has encouraged more and more people to use buses and trains and trams and tubes, stemming congestion and the fumes that stationary cars emit.
