I know someone who is not winning a smart growth award

That would be Michael S. Johnson of the Examiner who wrote

Maryland and the District of Columbia need traffic experts who drive to work. 

Yes, finally someone said it. When are traffic experts in America finally going to stop ignoring the car?

I would love to go through this article and tear it apart. How wrong it is about Carter (who was talking about the energy crisis - if only we'd listened). How his litany of problems for transit for one day would pale in comparison to a similar list of problems with driving on any day. How Metro is still orders of magnitude safer than driving. How you could replace O'Malley with Ehrlich in this following statement and probably make a pretty strong argument about a whole other ideology.

Martin O’Malley is a link in a long chain of governmental administrators in Maryland and the District of Columbia who, when it comes to transportation, have sought to transform their ideology into government policies and impose them on the public in the name of progress.  In that process, they have destroyed the transportation system in the metropolitan area, causing gridlock, wasting energy, inciting road rage, detracting from home life and crippling the economy with lost productivity and efficiency.

How I'd rephrase this

They have stuck to the misguided notion that if pressured hard enough with inconveniences, added costs and a load of guilt, the public would simply one day, leave the keys on the counter, the cars in the garage and .. hop on their bicycle...

to note that the inconvenience and added cost are coming one way or another, but if you build the cost into the system, instead of passing them on to property owners and workers, people will make the rational choice to find another way.

How this is a pot-calling-the-kettle-black statement

They have locked themselves into a state of perpetual denial about the critical nature of the car to our socio-economic way of life.

How this doesn't make sense

bicycle laws and regulations are a bad joke

How misguided this is

The elected leaders who hire them need to insist on transportation plans with more lanes of traffic, more major arteries  and more parking. 

Where would that all go?

Or how in DC, since this represents more than half of all commuters:

If Mr. O’Malley wants to encourage people to walk or ride bikes or hop on a metro train--if they’ve got the guts--okay, but walking, biking and buses do not a transportation policy make. 

It actually does make a transportation policy

[Walking, biking and buses] are options.

Are they? I think all to often they are not, and that's the problem.

I would do all that, but I don't have the time.[BTW, this is the same Michael S. Johnson who wrote this winner.]

Comments

[darren]

it's also a shame that in his page-count pandering, he falsely pits road technology and operations investments against bike/ped/transit investments. They're in many ways compatible. The true zero sum game is between adding capacity and maximizing existing capacity. Ironic how he quotes Rob Bertini, formerly a progressive transpo prof at Portland State, now head of USDOT's research arm and directly involved in the intelligent transpo systems program.

[SJE]

Isn't the definition of stupidity doing the same thing despite evidence of failure?

By his reasoning, the problem is a lack of investment in roads, even though there is abundant evidence that increased investment in roads, traffic management, cars, etc has only made the problem worse. So, lets not only do the same things that fail, but double down! Gee: now with extra stupid.

[Barry Childress]

Thanks Washcycle for writing this.

[contrarian]

Sounds like the Examiner needs columnists who don't drive to work.

[Jan]

"...the buses are half full..."

How convenient it is to miss the obvious: Metro cars are packed. To the brim. Why? Because the roads are packed with cars.

"...erratically driven trains..."

Someone hasn't opened their eyes: There are a million more erratically driven cars in the DC area endangering millions. I see about 5 a day on my commute at the least.

It's funny how people spout facts only convenient to their argument.

Thanks for posting this Washcycle.

[J]

The bus may be half full, but IM guessing his car is 75% empty

[Max]

So, in a nutshell paraphrase, Johnson is saying, "Getting around by car is really awful in this area! If only more people drove more cars, it would be wonderful!"

And we "sideshow" cyclists are the "lemmings". Hmm.

I think this guy needs to risk his socio-economic status and go for a bike ride.

[Cavan]

I can't tell if the Examiner author is clueless or slanted. Maybe both. Typical drivel from that right-wing rag.

Thank you for a good response to the madness.

[Dr Pangloss]

As a tax-paying DC resident, I'd just like to extend Mr Johnson an invitation to begin paying DC taxes. Until then, a hearty, "Go Cheney yourself!"

[Jack]

He's right that bike laws and regulations are a bad joke. Of course I don't think he meant it the way I do.