Should Transit Be Free? | Car Free Baltimore

Also, auto user fees don't even pay the full

 construction and maintenance costs of roads

 (this statement probably wouldn't have fit on her back).

Should Transit Be Free? | Car Free Baltimore:

• "Reduction in operating costs (fare collectors, payment system terminals would be abolished)
• Increased ridership
• Broader demographic groups would ride because of convenience and low barriers to entry
• The environmental, social and health benefits (positive externalities) of each new transit rider would more than compensate for lost fare box revenue
• More political power/representation due to massive increases in ridership"

the world is changing faster than we know

How will America handle the fall of its Middle East empire? – Telegraph Blogs: "America’s global interests are under threat on a scale never before seen. Since 1956, when Secretary of State John Foster Dulles pulled the plug on Britain and France over Suez, the Arab world has been a US domain. At first, there were promises that it would tolerate independence and self-determination. But this did not last long; America chose to govern through brutal and corrupt dictators, supplied with arms, military training and advice from Washington.
The momentous importance of the last few weeks is that this profitable, though morally bankrupt, arrangement appears to be coming to an end. One of the choicest ironies of the bloody and macabre death throes of the regime in Libya is that Colonel Gaddafi would have been wiser to have stayed out of the US sphere of influence. When he joined forces with George Bush and Tony Blair five years ago, the ageing dictator was leaping on to a bandwagon that was about to grind to a halt."

Attn: Dictators, the more you kill, the sooner you go down.

Gaddafi's hold on Libya weakens - Africa - Al Jazeera English: "'Gaddafi's guards started shooting people in the second day ... when they killed two people, we had more than 5,000 at their funeral, and when they killed 15 people the next day, we had more than 50,000 the following day,' he said, adding 'the more Gaddafi kills people, the more people go into the streets.'"

Book review: Antonia Juhasz's THE TYRANNY OF OIL — Transition Voice

Book review: Antonia Juhasz's THE TYRANNY OF OIL — Transition Voice: "Since the US passed the peak of its domestic oil production in 1970 and then suffered the indignity of the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973-4, policy wonks and advocacy groups alike have presented no shortage of sensible plans to start breaking America’s dependence on oil.
But every attempt to implement a rational energy policy has failed because because the major oil companies didn’t want America to start using less of their product. And everybody knows that Big Oil owns Washington."

Gasoline Tax - ACT for Transit

Gasoline Tax: "The current economic crisis requires us to use tax dollars more efficiently than in the past. Maryland is in a position to do that with strategic investments that bring out the full value of our existing transit lines. The Purple Line will offer fast, frequent transit between the Washington suburbs that Metro already connects with D.C. The Red Line, connecting with existing Metro and light rail lines, will make Baltimore once again a city where living without a car is convenient as well as affordable. MARC will be an all-day transit service, not just a commuter railroad. Through these investments, we will create a far more efficient transportation system, one that no longer forces commuters onto overcrowded and overpriced highways. At the same time, by encouraging transit-oriented development, we will reinvigorate our economy and rebuild the livable communities that our citizens yearn for."

Corporations are not people

More info at http://www.sustainabilitycoalition.org/

Time to admit it -- auto system does not work

Credit: Submitted by Alicia Renee

Prince William Parkway became a parking lot during the snow.

Nightmare commute stretched until dawn for many drivers | InsideNova: "Because of the volume of cars on the road and those stalled due to road conditions, VDOT trucks couldn’t get to where they were going in a timely fashion.

Morris said in 25 years with VDOT, she’s never seen anything like it before – even considering last year’s blizzards – and called 66 a parking lot."