CORY'S RANT efforts to drive people out of their cars are failing and costly
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
183.80115
Summary
The opposite of populism is elitism. Climate change extremists are being indulged by authoritarian governments to try and force people out of their vehicles. And while they re failing terribly at getting people out their cars, they re causing stress and economic damage with their efforts.
Transcript
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The opposite of populism is elitism, powered by authoritarianism.
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Climate change extremists are being indulged by authoritarian governments
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And while they're failing terribly at getting people out of their cars,
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they're causing stress and economic damage with their efforts.
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They can't create appeal for their plans with the majority of citizens,
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so they're counting on top-down government efforts to further their agenda.
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And they're getting that effort, you know, getting that help.
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Despite over a decade of effort on the part of governments to push us into electric vehicles, for example,
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Electric cars remain an expensive luxury for urban-dwelling virtue signalers.
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We've spent billions trying to force people to embrace electrical vehicles, and it's failed.
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Governments are responding, though, by spending billions more
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and continuing to punish people who choose to drive personal internal combustion vehicles.
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expensive and essential roadway access has been taken away from cars
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This has only increased traffic congestion in urban centers,
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and the number of dedicated bicycle commuters has relained as low as it ever was.
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Come on, there's only so many spandex aficionados
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to ride all the way into work and back every day.
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City planners have felt that if they could just make traffic bad enough
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and make parking expensive enough, commuters would just toss away their car keys
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Never mind that our streets are covered in snow and ice for half the year.
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Ideological city planners backed by climate-obsessed city mayors and counselors
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are zoning and creating apartment buildings with no parking provided.
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Unsurprisingly, such developments have to be heavily subsidized
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do they want to force every visitor to their homes to park miles away
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and take transit or taxis to come on by and have a beer?
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Living without practical parking in urban areas is just not desirable.
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Now, pedestrian zones created in downtown areas have killed some ground-level retail businesses.
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In Calgary, the once bustling Stephen Avenue Mall, which was a pedestrian zone, sure,
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but it's turned into an economic dead zone where for lease signs grace most of the storefronts
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and homeless people rather than shoppers predominantly prowl the strip.
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I mean, while the mall had been popular at one time,
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it's because parking nearby was plentiful, accessible, and affordable.
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Now, due to traffic snarls and a lack of available parking,
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people have taken their business to the suburbs and the place has dried up.
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Well, in many cities, transit's been overrun with attics, creating disorder and mayhem.
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In Calgary, thanks to the honor system for fare payment, coupled with a woke city council
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who refused to crack down on what they call vulnerable people,
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the transit system has turned into a dystopian nightmare.
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while discarded syringes and human waste decorate bus shelters and train stations.
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City council in Calgary actually closed a number of train stations
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due to the encampments of violent addicts in them rather than dealing with the issue.
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Ridership on Calgary transits at 64% of what it was only two years ago,
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people won't choose to subject themselves to the dangerous nightmare of riding on city trains.
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Now, Calgary has had its city council dominated with anti-auto zealots
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since Nahed Nenshu was elected as mayor over a decade ago.
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but it's led to a dysfunctional and dangerous downtown,
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They've tried to blame this in the past on the oil crash,
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New businesses are setting up in Alberta all the time.
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They just keep building their facilities outside of the city limits.
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Nobody wants to move a business into a city center
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with congested traffic, expensive parking, and high crime.
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It makes it rather hard to draw employees into work for you.
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And there's no intention that city planners are learning from this or giving up.
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that offers one of the few crossings for a major rail line leaving downtown
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to build an underpass exclusively for pedestrians and bicycles.
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All this is going to do is cause even more traffic havoc
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and perhaps create a new location for a tent city.
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Again, these planners and their supporters live in a delusional world
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where they feel if they could just piss drivers off enough,
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those drivers will just throw up their hands and stop driving.
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they need to create a realistic alternative to cars
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Electric cars are still too expensive and impractical for most people.
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Transit is not nearly safe or good enough for people to rely on.
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If the anti-car crowd would address building an alternative to cars first,
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they'd have a great deal more success in convincing people to give up on them.
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Do they really think that a parent of four kids is going to ride a bus
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and haul groceries for a family that size four times a week?
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Do they think a person in their 60s is going to ride a bicycle
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Do they think a slight young woman is going to subject herself daily
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to the criminal mayhem on trains in order to get to work?
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while the inner city neighborhoods are declining.
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Urban planners and climate zealots have to stop.
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Quit trying to use the stick and they've got to find some carrots.
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and it's coming at a terrible cost for all of us.
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Quit punishing citizens for using the only practical,
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viable, and affordable form of transportation we have.