I'm taking a stab at this as follows: Our present system of transportation is currently based almost entirely on the personal automobile. The primary reason for the existence of the personal vehicle is not to meet our needs for mobility but to nourish and coddle the massive energy and automobile corporations. Psychological manipulation of people through advertising has been an important tool in building this system -- addicting people to the car by promoting it not only as a necessity but as a source of status, power and freedom, as well. The power of the large energy and automobile corporations to manipulate us and thus dictate the terms of our transportation infrastructure now leaves us on the dangerous brink of further wars to secure natural resources and global warming on disastrous scales. It is urgent that common people resist the manipulation of the energy and automobile industries and work collectively and democratically towards the creation of sustainable means of transportation. However, the first step in this movement is to help the vast majority of San Franciscans -- as well as the rest of the nation -- to see the car not as an entitlement -- or even a necessity -- but as an increasingly untenable means of transportation due to congestion, pollution, global warming, and the geopolitics of oil depletion and price instability. Many people will argue that technology will provide the solution to the ICE (internal combustion engine) and allow people to still have their personal vehicles -- though they may not operate on petroleum. Decades of research has yet to provide an alternative to ICEs. In addition, lower emission vehicles that use compressed natural gas still contribute to congestion and geopolitical instability -- and at present seem to be subject to a more rapidly declining curve of natural gas production than even oil once peak production is reached. Sue
Background
Our present transportation system is centered in a one-dimensional way around the car. Its primary function has not been to meet our needs for mobility so much as it has been to nourish and coddle the massive energy and automobile corporations.
Advertising has been an important tool in building this system - addicting people to the car by promoting it as a source of status, power and freedom. It has resulted in a loss of the common persons' having much say over how their needs are meet.
Taking back this democratic right means that ever increasing numbers of people will have to see the car as it is - a source of congestion, pollution and alienation.
This will be a process involving many different interconnected and interdependent factors. This document represents a start in this process.
However, we are speaking to a deep crisis which our mainstream leadership refuses to honestly acknowledge because so much depends on the car being at the center of things. Consequently, taking leadership means honesty in facing sometimes unpleasant facts - but in doing so we are putting human needs at the center where they belong, and drivers will also benefit. To continue on our current path would be sucide for us as well as for the Earth over the next several years.
Jerry Path pjrry@igc.org Why Wait? Move to EarthLink. _______________________________________________ Transpo mailing list Transpo@sfgreens.org https://list.sfgreens.org/mailman/listinfo/transpo