Saturday, March 27, 2010

The Future of Transportation, Nonmotorized

Ray LaHood, Secy of Transportation has announced the impending demise of the internal combustion motor:
“Today I want to announce a sea change,” he wrote on his blog last week. “This is the end of favoring motorized transportation at the expense of nonmotorized.”
Either he's never been out of "La Hood" or he hasn't noticed the chauffeur in the front seat of his armored limo. Or maybe he thinks of the limo as public transportation. After all, the public is paying for it.
The new policy, which was introduced a few days after Mr. LaHood gave a well-received speech from atop a table at the National Bike Summit, is said to reflect the Transportation Department’s support for the development of fully integrated transportation networks.
Drinking with the bikers is certainly a worthwhile pastime, as anyone who has ever ridden the RAGBRAI* will attest, but you should probably have tour secretary stop you before you start dancing on the table tops. Especially if this includes policy speeches.

The folks at the National Association of Manufacturers is unimpressed, having evidently not gotten the memo about the new jobs program involving enrolling the unemployed into the Teamsters (truck drivers, among other things) union as junior members whose job description includes being harnessed into teams of 50 to 100 to pull the now fuel-free semi-trailers across the country. Of course with good bike trails,...
Anything is possible, although the trails may require widening. I could also recommend a tandem bike as the prime mover, although that may entail an unacceptable split in the delivery fee.

*Registers Annual Great Bike Ride Across Iowa, also known to participants as the Registers Annual Great Beer Ride Across Iowa. Motorbike riders refer to this sort of sport as T.T. racing (Tavern to Tavern).

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