None of these did not dress the fundamental issue that our car culture and way of life is not sustainable and must be changed.
Working people need to abandon their faraway suburban homes and move to where jobs are and rely on public transits.
At the same time, high speed rail became controversy again, mostly about the cost-efficiency and the usage projections. Legitimate questions for sure. However, some of the arguments the opponents put forth didn't make sense. One of the op-ed pieces in San Francisco Chronicle calculated with the air traffic between San Francisco and Los Angeles to project the potential users of the proposed high speed rail. However, the rail has been planned with the goal to replace not only many air traffic but also automobile traffic. Ignoring that large portion of the targeted audience is unscientific and dishonest.
What we should have done but failed miserably was following through President Carter's strategy and become less dependent on fossil fuel. For years, Americans have enjoyed the artificial cheap gasoline and now it's reckoning time. It's painful but we must meet this issue head on.
Republicans love to talk about taking personal responsibilities and I hope they would come out of their comfort zone and be a true champion of real personal responsibility. Is there any true Republican out there?
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