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DEBATES * USA - Interstate system one of biggest mistakes of 20th century
Frostburg,Maryland,USA -The Cumberland Times-news, by R. Steele Selby -Feb 12, 2007: -- ... These are all serious indictments against the auto and its sidekick, the interstate. However there are a number of even more damaging charges to bring. A sampling of items from this category would include carbon dioxide emissions, dependence on foreign oil, urban sprawl, "bedroom communities," destruction of the natural environment, and creating an unsustainable economic burden. Over the past 50 years of its history the government (which is of course us) has spent more than a trillion dollars on the interstate. It now lacks the money to even keep up with all the necessary repairs, and has no way to fund expansions to meet the exponential growth of cars, trucks and miles driven. People find themselves increasingly using more of their valuable time simply sitting on traffic-congested highways... The auto addiction is especially prevalent within families where there are now more vehicles to drive than licensed drivers. In some family budgets the total transportation cost is actually larger than any other item... At times I like very much to play the game "What if?" What if, instead of investing in a big road system, Ike and Congress had decided to pour billions of dollars into retooling and enhancing the already existing rail network? Better still, what if today the U.S. had no interstate system, but instead had a modern state-of-the-art railway system which connected all parts of the country? In my view, if this were the case, the above negatives would disappear, and the benefits of such an arrangement would be simply too awesome to imagine!...
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posted by Unknown @ 2:02 PM
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