Western Standard - CORY'S RANT efforts to drive people out of their cars are failing and costly

00:00:00.000 The opposite of populism is elitism, powered by authoritarianism.

00:00:04.840 Climate change extremists are being indulged by authoritarian governments

00:00:09.020 to try and force people out of their vehicles.

00:00:11.860 And while they're failing terribly at getting people out of their cars,

00:00:15.300 they're causing stress and economic damage with their efforts.

00:00:18.320 They can't create appeal for their plans with the majority of citizens,

00:00:21.280 so they're counting on top-down government efforts to further their agenda.

00:00:25.640 And they're getting that effort, you know, getting that help.

00:00:28.240 Despite over a decade of effort on the part of governments to push us into electric vehicles, for example,

00:00:33.820 95% of drivers still won't use them.

00:00:36.740 Electric cars remain an expensive luxury for urban-dwelling virtue signalers.

00:00:41.720 We've spent billions trying to force people to embrace electrical vehicles, and it's failed.

00:00:46.200 Governments are responding, though, by spending billions more

00:00:48.800 and continuing to punish people who choose to drive personal internal combustion vehicles.

00:00:54.080 Now, in municipalities across North America,

00:00:56.540 expensive and essential roadway access has been taken away from cars

00:01:01.000 and given over to segregated bicycle lanes.

00:01:04.180 This has only increased traffic congestion in urban centers,

00:01:06.920 and the number of dedicated bicycle commuters has relained as low as it ever was.

00:01:11.120 Come on, there's only so many spandex aficionados 0.82

00:01:13.280 who are really going to go to all that trouble

00:01:15.200 to ride all the way into work and back every day.

00:01:17.520 There's always been a small core of them.

00:01:19.180 It doesn't get any bigger.

00:01:20.680 City planners have felt that if they could just make traffic bad enough

00:01:24.200 and make parking expensive enough, commuters would just toss away their car keys

00:01:28.100 and choose to ride bicycles to work.

00:01:30.420 Never mind that our streets are covered in snow and ice for half the year.

00:01:33.840 Ideological city planners backed by climate-obsessed city mayors and counselors

00:01:38.040 are zoning and creating apartment buildings with no parking provided.

00:01:41.340 Unsurprisingly, such developments have to be heavily subsidized

00:01:45.000 because nobody actually wants to live in them.

00:01:47.080 Even if one doesn't have a vehicle themselves,

00:01:49.000 do they want to force every visitor to their homes to park miles away

00:01:52.300 and take transit or taxis to come on by and have a beer?

00:01:56.100 Living without practical parking in urban areas is just not desirable.

00:02:00.660 Now, pedestrian zones created in downtown areas have killed some ground-level retail businesses.

00:02:06.060 In Calgary, the once bustling Stephen Avenue Mall, which was a pedestrian zone, sure,

00:02:09.960 but it's turned into an economic dead zone where for lease signs grace most of the storefronts

00:02:14.920 and homeless people rather than shoppers predominantly prowl the strip.

00:02:19.020 I mean, while the mall had been popular at one time,

00:02:20.680 it's because parking nearby was plentiful, accessible, and affordable.

00:02:24.380 Now, due to traffic snarls and a lack of available parking,

00:02:27.680 people have taken their business to the suburbs and the place has dried up.

00:02:31.300 But what about transit, though?

00:02:33.040 Well, in many cities, transit's been overrun with attics, creating disorder and mayhem. 1.00

00:02:37.720 In Calgary, thanks to the honor system for fare payment, coupled with a woke city council

00:02:42.200 who refused to crack down on what they call vulnerable people,

00:02:45.520 the transit system has turned into a dystopian nightmare.

00:02:48.640 Violent incidents on trains are commonplace,

00:02:50.900 while discarded syringes and human waste decorate bus shelters and train stations.

00:02:55.780 City council in Calgary actually closed a number of train stations

00:02:58.640 due to the encampments of violent addicts in them rather than dealing with the issue.

00:03:02.480 Ridership on Calgary transits at 64% of what it was only two years ago,

00:03:08.120 and it continues to decline.

00:03:09.640 Even with gas nearing $2 a liter,

00:03:11.440 people won't choose to subject themselves to the dangerous nightmare of riding on city trains.

00:03:17.760 Now, Calgary has had its city council dominated with anti-auto zealots

00:03:21.380 since Nahed Nenshu was elected as mayor over a decade ago.

00:03:24.440 The result of 10 years of anti-car policies

00:03:26.880 hasn't taken anybody out of their cars,

00:03:29.100 but it's led to a dysfunctional and dangerous downtown,

00:03:32.140 at least contributed towards it,

00:03:33.760 with over 30% commercial vacancy rates.

00:03:36.420 They've tried to blame this in the past on the oil crash,

00:03:38.920 but that doesn't cut it.

00:03:39.940 New businesses are setting up in Alberta all the time.

00:03:42.160 They just keep building their facilities outside of the city limits.

00:03:45.460 Nobody wants to move a business into a city center

00:03:47.540 with congested traffic, expensive parking, and high crime.

00:03:51.000 It makes it rather hard to draw employees into work for you.

00:03:54.240 And there's no intention that city planners are learning from this or giving up.

00:03:58.480 The city right now plans to close a busy...

00:04:00.500 In Calgary, plans to close a busy street

00:04:02.340 that offers one of the few crossings for a major rail line leaving downtown

00:04:05.840 to build an underpass exclusively for pedestrians and bicycles.

00:04:09.480 All this is going to do is cause even more traffic havoc

00:04:12.100 and perhaps create a new location for a tent city.

00:04:15.420 Again, these planners and their supporters live in a delusional world

00:04:19.440 where they feel if they could just piss drivers off enough,

00:04:22.340 those drivers will just throw up their hands and stop driving.

00:04:24.860 But it isn't working.

00:04:26.500 Climate zealots just can't seem to realize

00:04:28.500 they need to create a realistic alternative to cars

00:04:31.300 before people are going to stop using them.

00:04:34.120 Electric cars are still too expensive and impractical for most people.

00:04:38.200 Bicycles are a novelty and a hobby for most.

00:04:40.620 Transit is not nearly safe or good enough for people to rely on.

00:04:44.640 If the anti-car crowd would address building an alternative to cars first,

00:04:48.400 they'd have a great deal more success in convincing people to give up on them.

00:04:54.280 Do they really think that a parent of four kids is going to ride a bus

00:04:57.140 and haul groceries for a family that size four times a week?

00:05:00.900 Do they think a person in their 60s is going to ride a bicycle

00:05:03.080 an hour to work every day in January?

00:05:07.060 Do they think a slight young woman is going to subject herself daily 0.97

00:05:09.500 to the criminal mayhem on trains in order to get to work?

00:05:12.560 Suburbs and satellite cities are booming

00:05:14.680 while the inner city neighborhoods are declining.

00:05:17.020 Urban planners and climate zealots have to stop.

00:05:19.780 Quit trying to use the stick and they've got to find some carrots. 0.80

00:05:23.260 The current strategy has been a total failure

00:05:24.920 and it's coming at a terrible cost for all of us.

00:05:27.240 Quit punishing citizens for using the only practical,

00:05:30.520 viable, and affordable form of transportation we have.

00:05:33.860 And that is the personal automobile.

00:05:35.280 Everything is pretty simple.

Western Standard - June 09, 2022

CORY'S RANT efforts to drive people out of their cars are failing and costly

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