Are We Being In-car-cerated?

Just in general, what do people use their cars for? 

Before your “final answer,” first think of how you use your car, and then consider the different ways your extended family uses its cars. Next think about how your friends and neighbors use their cars.

My general list goes something like this:

For the majority of people, going to and from work is number one. 

This is followed by some sort of recreational or leisure activity, going to the beach or taking the kids to the park, mostly on the weekends.

Going out to dinner occurs intermittently for some and perhaps by necessity, more regularly for others. 

Taking care of the necessities of everyday life comes next . . . getting groceries, going to the barber shop, the hair salon, the cleaners, the laundry-mat, the doctor’s office, or church.

For a number of younger families, transporting the kids to and from school and their various after school activities comes next. 

I am sure that this list is far from complete, as each of us could add our own auto-use idiosyncrasies to this list.

To start with, the vast majority of those who live in Southern California do not live within a few miles of where they work. Just look at the morning and the evening traffic on the freeways. Those who live less than a few miles from where they work are not on the freeways. However, the freeways are jammed during rush-hour, ergo the thousands upon thousands of cars on the freeways are there by necessity.

As far as the other general usages of our cars, how many of them can be done without perspiring? For most, would it be appropriate to show up hot or sweaty to work or to a social activity with friends? I think not! 

Certainly, if the grocery store was relatively close, most of us could use other modes of transportation instead of out cars. We could walk, bike, or even rollerblade to Vons. Of course, the carrying home of the groceries would present an additional challenge for many unless they went to pick up a small amount of foodstuff each and every day . . . as our parents did back in the Stone Age. And forget Costco. How many of us can go to Costco and come away with a only small amount that we could bring home in our bicycle’s basket or in a backpack? 

By this time most of you who use logical thinking are saying something akin to, “For 90+% of the things I use my car for, I would need my car and not a substitute, like a bike or rollerblades.”

For me it is more that just a bit of a stretch to conflate freeway travel and bike paths in the same sentence. Are they both a way to transport people? Yes, but are they on equal footing when it comes to how people get around from day to day? Get real! Who would actually think that that these two modes of transportation should be used in the same sentence? The answer my friends . . . San Diego Association of Governments, SANDAG, and its relatively new executive director, Isan Ikhrata. For those of you not familiar with SANDAG, it is the metropolitan planning agency for the county. This group of policy makers basically controls our future modes of transportation – our freeways, our roads, our rapid transit systems, and our bike paths. Isan Ikhrata  is the executive director of SANDAG. (According to those in the know, San Diego County was fortunate to be able to “steal” him away from L.A. County, where he has done an obviously wonderful job of dealing with the freeway congestion and the rapid transit system in L.A.!  Huh?! This “theft” is only costing SANDAG [more precisely, us voters] over $400,000 per year.)

Earlier this year, Ikhrata announced that the agency would abandon its previous transportation plans, which focused on improvements to the county’s network of roads, in favor of a transportation plan that boosts funding for public transit projects with the goal of moving the county away from the use of personal vehicles.

Ikhrata’s powerful argument for his recommendation: Unless the plan was modified, the region would never succeed in meeting a state climate law’s requirement that there be a 19 percent per capita reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2035, using 2005 emissions as a baseline.

Ahh! Now I get it! Ikhrata is a member of California’s new religion, which is anti-car and pro-bike. (FYI: As a faithful follower, he did allude to global warming in his full statement.) Because of some pie-in-the-sky beliefs of the liberal members of this religion, i.e. the Democratic politicians in Sacramento, Mr. Ikhrata states that the people of San Diego County will be forced to use more rapid transit, bike paths, and our feet in years to come. 

Always remember: These politicians are smarter than us and because of their religious beliefs, they feel obliged to tell the rest of us how we should go about our day to day activities, like going to work and going . . . or perhaps never again in the future, going to Costco!