The future? We’ll repurpose our stupid steel boxes —
Cool Ways to Reuse Cars
— in which we spend way too much of our utterly precious time wastefully and expensively idling in traffic or feeling momentarily superior as we whiz by other branded steel boxes with other lonely strangers inside. All of us tense, worried, windows up for AC or heat, wondering why we feel so damned disconnected. Instead we’ll be sitting next to each other and across from each other as we whiz smoothly along. We’ll be helping each other get up and offering our seats to one another. Making eye contact, or not; or using the time, eyes closed, to dream. What’s not to like?
Besides reducing the use of non-renewable oil, thus the need for endless wars to secure it, this report also signals the first hints of a rebalancing in our society: from rampant, over-the-top individualism to community, to the commons, to the realization that either we as a people take the reins of our common good, or we fall back into the ruinous “old west” mentality that protects me and mine (with guns, of course!) at the expense of everyone else.
Time we got over that antideluvian attitude. Time we started activating our right brains, rather than our reptilian brains. Time to feel ourselves, each of our beautiful unique expressions of being, as all pouring into the wondrous current of humanity inside the oceanic immensity that holds and fuels all of life — and get this: it is all, all of it, alive.
Car Use Down, Public Transportation Use Up
December 20, 2012
Obama wasn’t the only winner this past November. Proponents of public transportation gained significant wins at the ballot box.There were wins in almost 80% of public transportation ballot measures. According to the Center for Transportation Excellence, 2012 has seen more transit related ballot initiatives than any other year in the past decade.In a post-election press release, the Center for Transportation Excellence outlined a continuing trend of increasing transit related initiatives.The November election results show that two thirds of ballot related measures were successful, adding to the 33 successful measures recorded earlier in 2012.Out of a total of 60 ballot measures across the US in 2012 there have been 47 wins and 13 losses.“This successful trend of passing transit measures demonstrates that public transportation is a vital and essential service that people want and need,” said American Public Transportation Association (APTA) President and CEO Michael Melaniphy.Use of public transportation across the US has been on the rise since 2011, and recent data has shown car use to be decreasing.
“Even with economic concerns still on everyone’s minds, voters decided to pass taxes, create bonding, or take other actions to improve or maintain public transportation,” Mr Melaniphy said.
Jason Jordan, director of the Center for Transportation Excellence, also expressed excitement at the recent push for public transport initiatives.
“When the case is made to people about specific benefits [of public transit] in their community, people are consistently willing to step up and help pay for it,” Mr Jordan said.
“There is a clear demand for transit. There is a clear demand for alternatives”.
Image by Kevin H, courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing.
