Buddy's Place
Be Impressed With More Concrete Actions on Climate
RECEIVED Mon., May 21, 2007
Dear Editor,
Characterizing Austin as having "the most ambitious municipal climate-protection plan in the nation" [“Writing the Climate,” News, May 18] is a very sad reflection on other climate-protection plans. I’d be much more impressed with some concrete actions that literally could be done with the stroke of a pen and that have proved effective elsewhere:
1) Severely limit or prohibit adding new parking places Downtown, as Portland, Ore., has. If less space Downtown is taken up with parking, more space will be available for people to work Downtown and thus increase the number of riders to make public transit feasible.
2) Adopt a congestion pricing plan as London and Singapore have done and New York is considering. Such a plan places a sizable – say $10 a trip – charge on driving into the Downtown area during daytime hours. That reduces the number of cars alleviating congestion. Receipts from the plan are used to improve mass transit for those going Downtown, creating a virtuous circle, fewer cars, less congestion, better public transit, more riders.
Three: Dedicated bus lanes into the Downtown area are now standard fare in many cities. As long as buses get caught in traffic jams along with the cars that cause them, there is little incentive to switch. However if those who are stuck in traffic see buses zipping by them each day, many will be induced to leave their cars at home.
Characterizing Austin as having "the most ambitious municipal climate-protection plan in the nation" [“Writing the Climate,” News, May 18] is a very sad reflection on other climate-protection plans. I’d be much more impressed with some concrete actions that literally could be done with the stroke of a pen and that have proved effective elsewhere:
1) Severely limit or prohibit adding new parking places Downtown, as Portland, Ore., has. If less space Downtown is taken up with parking, more space will be available for people to work Downtown and thus increase the number of riders to make public transit feasible.
2) Adopt a congestion pricing plan as London and Singapore have done and New York is considering. Such a plan places a sizable – say $10 a trip – charge on driving into the Downtown area during daytime hours. That reduces the number of cars alleviating congestion. Receipts from the plan are used to improve mass transit for those going Downtown, creating a virtuous circle, fewer cars, less congestion, better public transit, more riders.
Three: Dedicated bus lanes into the Downtown area are now standard fare in many cities. As long as buses get caught in traffic jams along with the cars that cause them, there is little incentive to switch. However if those who are stuck in traffic see buses zipping by them each day, many will be induced to leave their cars at home.
Philip Russell