Published: 1/31/2022 1:36:34 PM
Modified: 1/31/2022 1:35:05 PM
In Earth Matters (Gazette, Jan 7), writer Tom Litwin muses about “how our lives … became so enmeshed” with vehicles.
We have been within the seductive thrall of the self-serving tales of the auto and fossil gas corporations within the U.S. for so long as I can keep in mind — that’s again to the Truman administration. Our automobile infrastructure has develop into ever extra insatiable and we preserve chasing the mirage of including lanes to chop congestion. There is a freeway in Texas that has grown to a monstrous 24 lanes!
Our resultant local weather disaster clearly dictates it’s time for alternate options. There is nice information about electrical automobile developments. But if all our vehicles out of the blue turned electrical, we might nonetheless be sitting in site visitors, in all probability alone, losing time.
Recent writers have extolled bikes and e-bikes, which have been a game-changer for many individuals. But not everybody can journey a motorcycle for all types of journeys, and in all types of climate. Electric buses are far more environment friendly, in contrast to vehicles the place every driver imposes a delay on each different driver. Frequent, low price or free, and handy public transit will entice riders, draw down carbon and scale back congestion. People ought to be capable to use the bus to do the each day actions of their life: procuring, eating, assembly associates for espresso, for dialog, for probability encounters, for a stroll within the park or on Main Street — all with out the poisonous emissions of our diesel bus fleet.
Martin Luther King spoke of the “fierce urgency of now.” He stated this was no time “to take the tranquilizer drug of gradualism.” He was talking of racial injustice, however his phrases may describe combating the environmental injustice and well being inequities that underlie the urgency of addressing our local weather disaster. His eloquent phrases appear to be an enchantment to work collectively for the widespread good and to offer our kids a livable future. That livable future should embrace easy accessibility to fossil-free public transportation.
Jackie Ballance
Florence