Mar. 27th, 2011 11:29 am
Rant mode: Engaged
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textualdevianceOne-size-fits-all environmental activists really, REALLY piss me off. Not because I think their underlying cause is misguided (hardly) but because they don't actually think about the practicality of the demands they make.
Today, for example, was the person who said that no one should have a problem with high gas prices because we should all live in-city and commute to work via bike and/or transit.
Oh, honey. All that organic ganja you been toking is frying your brain.
1. Not all workplaces are in urban cores.
Mine, for instance, is in a semi-urban sattelite for a company based in a suburban city that used to be a remote bedroom community. If I lived downtown, as I'm "supposed" to? My commute would be twice as long. Three times on bad-weather or game days.
2. Living close to work isn't possible for everyone.
In the case of people who do work in an urban core, most office drones don't make enough to afford the expensive condos nearby. Singles or DINKs can manage it, sure. They have enough money relative to the square footage they need to make it work. But most folks trying to raise kids on a single income or two smallish ones? The only places they'd be able to afford nearby would be rat traps in gang territory.
3. If you can't afford to live in a dense area, transit generally sucks.
Unless you're lucky enough to live someplace like Portland, which has one of the best transit systems in the country, you're pretty much screwed. Transit, like any other government expenditure, has to be planned in terms of how much it's truly going to cost. Running bus or rail lines out to light-density areas generally doesn't make financial sense. A bus stop that only a dozen people are going to use each month won't ever make back the money it would take to run an hourly bus past there. What this means is that most suburban transit commuters are faced with having to do park-and-ride. Which means owning a car. And if your commute is going to be basically the same length of time, and you're shelling out car payments and insurance anyway, then what's the point of taking the bus/train?
Also WRT this is the sheer time sink involved in transit commuting. My (carpool) commute takes 25 minutes. If I tried to do this via bus, it'd take an hour, minimum, each way. Y'know, sue me, but I'd like to spend that extra hour of my day doing something besides hanging out in the rain and being smushed up against a bunch of strangers.
4. Biking is great. If it works for you.
Not all of us are able-bodied. Not all of us live in places with relatively flat terrain. Not all of us have generally pleasant weather most of the year. Hat's off to those crazy-healthy folks who take their bikes up 45-degree inclines in blizzards. Me? I'd keel over dead in the first 10 minutes of something like that. Not gonna happen.
5. Most people with kids need transportation flexibility.
If, as is the case with most, you can't afford to live close to work, your kid's school/daycare and healthcare providers, having the ability to leave work and transport your kid to the pediatrician on a moment's notice is vital. Kids don't schedule their injuries, illnesses and other small crises around bus and train schedules. And a sick kid also doesn't fit on the back of a bike. If your household is lucky enough to have a stay-at-home caregiver of some sort, great. S/he can manage these things and you don't have to leave work. But single parents or those who need two incomes to get by are screwed if they don't have a car at the workplace.
Don't get me wrong: I have plenty of problems with the folks who are convinced they need a Lincoln Navigator to do all this. But getting on the case of everyone who has a car and drives to work is asinine. Generally speaking, all of us can probably stand to do just a little more to reduce our fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions. But we don't all have the same circumstances, and therefore the exact ways we can do this aren't going to all be the same.
And--perhaps most important--in some cases, doing the same thing as someone else can actually make things worse. I've encountered plenty of people who are terribly smug about living in the DT core, yet who commute to a suburban office every day. Lookit me! I'm a hip, urban sophisticate! Uh, yeah. And you're also an idiot for subjecting yourself to two hours of bridge traffic every day. Sneer at my suburban paradise all you want. I spend less time on the road than you do, my newer house is probably cheaper to maintain and far more energy efficient per square foot than your crumbling "vintage" fourplex and I get to see more wild critters than pigeons and squirrels. Oh, and when I get a kid, I'll get to take her to a park across the street that won't be littered with used needles and human excrement. (All that, and my zip code is 10-15% less white than the vast majority of the zipcodes surrounding the DT core. "White flight" my ass.)
Not saying I'm the world's best environmentalist. Not even close. I know there's more I can do, and I'm always researching the best ways I can do it. But just because I live in a single-family house in the 'burbs doesn't mean I'm dumping antifreeze in salmon runs.
Today, for example, was the person who said that no one should have a problem with high gas prices because we should all live in-city and commute to work via bike and/or transit.
Oh, honey. All that organic ganja you been toking is frying your brain.
1. Not all workplaces are in urban cores.
Mine, for instance, is in a semi-urban sattelite for a company based in a suburban city that used to be a remote bedroom community. If I lived downtown, as I'm "supposed" to? My commute would be twice as long. Three times on bad-weather or game days.
2. Living close to work isn't possible for everyone.
In the case of people who do work in an urban core, most office drones don't make enough to afford the expensive condos nearby. Singles or DINKs can manage it, sure. They have enough money relative to the square footage they need to make it work. But most folks trying to raise kids on a single income or two smallish ones? The only places they'd be able to afford nearby would be rat traps in gang territory.
3. If you can't afford to live in a dense area, transit generally sucks.
Unless you're lucky enough to live someplace like Portland, which has one of the best transit systems in the country, you're pretty much screwed. Transit, like any other government expenditure, has to be planned in terms of how much it's truly going to cost. Running bus or rail lines out to light-density areas generally doesn't make financial sense. A bus stop that only a dozen people are going to use each month won't ever make back the money it would take to run an hourly bus past there. What this means is that most suburban transit commuters are faced with having to do park-and-ride. Which means owning a car. And if your commute is going to be basically the same length of time, and you're shelling out car payments and insurance anyway, then what's the point of taking the bus/train?
Also WRT this is the sheer time sink involved in transit commuting. My (carpool) commute takes 25 minutes. If I tried to do this via bus, it'd take an hour, minimum, each way. Y'know, sue me, but I'd like to spend that extra hour of my day doing something besides hanging out in the rain and being smushed up against a bunch of strangers.
4. Biking is great. If it works for you.
Not all of us are able-bodied. Not all of us live in places with relatively flat terrain. Not all of us have generally pleasant weather most of the year. Hat's off to those crazy-healthy folks who take their bikes up 45-degree inclines in blizzards. Me? I'd keel over dead in the first 10 minutes of something like that. Not gonna happen.
5. Most people with kids need transportation flexibility.
If, as is the case with most, you can't afford to live close to work, your kid's school/daycare and healthcare providers, having the ability to leave work and transport your kid to the pediatrician on a moment's notice is vital. Kids don't schedule their injuries, illnesses and other small crises around bus and train schedules. And a sick kid also doesn't fit on the back of a bike. If your household is lucky enough to have a stay-at-home caregiver of some sort, great. S/he can manage these things and you don't have to leave work. But single parents or those who need two incomes to get by are screwed if they don't have a car at the workplace.
Don't get me wrong: I have plenty of problems with the folks who are convinced they need a Lincoln Navigator to do all this. But getting on the case of everyone who has a car and drives to work is asinine. Generally speaking, all of us can probably stand to do just a little more to reduce our fossil-fuel consumption and carbon emissions. But we don't all have the same circumstances, and therefore the exact ways we can do this aren't going to all be the same.
And--perhaps most important--in some cases, doing the same thing as someone else can actually make things worse. I've encountered plenty of people who are terribly smug about living in the DT core, yet who commute to a suburban office every day. Lookit me! I'm a hip, urban sophisticate! Uh, yeah. And you're also an idiot for subjecting yourself to two hours of bridge traffic every day. Sneer at my suburban paradise all you want. I spend less time on the road than you do, my newer house is probably cheaper to maintain and far more energy efficient per square foot than your crumbling "vintage" fourplex and I get to see more wild critters than pigeons and squirrels. Oh, and when I get a kid, I'll get to take her to a park across the street that won't be littered with used needles and human excrement. (All that, and my zip code is 10-15% less white than the vast majority of the zipcodes surrounding the DT core. "White flight" my ass.)
Not saying I'm the world's best environmentalist. Not even close. I know there's more I can do, and I'm always researching the best ways I can do it. But just because I live in a single-family house in the 'burbs doesn't mean I'm dumping antifreeze in salmon runs.
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