Car Culture

George Skelton, the Los Angeles Times' columnist in the state Capital generally writes about politics and policy in the Governor's office or the legislature.  However, in today's edition he changed courses and went on a full-throated attack against the idea that the people who cause car crashes should repay the city for the cost of sending emergency services to the crash scene.  The vitriol in this column is really something to behold, when you consider that all Sacramento is doing is making the people who cause car crashes pay for the city's response instead of forcing tax payers to pay for someone else's negligence.

What do the president of FedEx, the former Director of National Intelligence, and 19 other business and military leaders have in common? They’re urging the U.S. to adopt less oil-intensive transportation habits. They say our national security depends on it.

In an effort to balance the state budget, Governor Jerry Brown ordered all state agencies to immediately review their policies towards owning vehicles on behalf of the state and policies allowing permits for take-home vehicles, which allow state employees to use state-owned passenger cars for their daily commute.

The tale is one that is familiar to us all. A model citizen is kind to friends, family and neighbors alike. He stops and smells the flowers. He walks around an ant.

Many transportation reformers were disappointed last week when the Pew Center on Global Climate Change released a report indicating that only clean car technology had a shot at significantly reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The report dismissed smart growth development strategies and transit as trivial contributors to a lower-carbon economy.

(Editor's note - If you don't read Streetsblog San Francisco, you'll be saddened to hear that our friend Matthew Roth, our sister site's Deputy Editor, is leaving to pursue other ambitions. This is his last post. Matt, you'll be missed. - DN)

Imagine two drivers leaving downtown to head home. Each of them sits in traffic for the first ten miles of the commute but at that point, their paths diverge. The first one has reached home. The second has another twenty miles to drive, though luckily for her, the roads are clear and congestion doesn’t slow her down. Who’s got a better commute?

(Note: I'm not using names in this piece because the people filling out The Source's survey didn't sign up to be critiqued elsewhere.  If you're really curious, you can certainly get the names to go with the story.)

Like most Americans, Rowena had no idea of the true total and ongoing financial cost of car ownership, and, like most Americans, she found her dealer in no rush to warn her about them.  While rent or mortgage remains the largest budget item for the average household, transportation now comes in a close second, and in some zip codes it even exceeds housing.