Submitted by Steven, Aug 18, 2008 21:25

Travis — You either live in the dark ages or somewhere beyond the reach of the MTA. Transportation Alternatives is a forward thinking, progressive group that gets its funding from it's members — and I am proud to call myself one of them. I happen to own a car, motor scooter and bike. I use each one when it is appropriate, but 75% of my trips are by subway or bus. The car is for long, out of town trips, the bike is great for shorter errands around town and recreation. The scooter works when I'm in a hurry and the subways and buses aren't running very often, like on the weekend. I fully support their efforts to reduce car usage in Manhattan and the more congested areas of the outer boroughs. These are smart people, who are working to create a city that is livable for all of us. With the population growing, we need to look at how space is used.

Currently, a large percentage of our public space is devoted to cars — whether that is street space for driving or for parking. By re-allocating how we approach the use of our limited space, we can a) pollute less (including air and noise pollution b) have healthier citizens because the air is cleaner and people will walk or bike more if space is provided and c) join the world's league of great cities that have excellent bike, public transport and pedestrianized areas. The other direction just creates more cars, congestion, pollution and obesity. Not to mention the social cost of moving around inside a metal box with no human contact as compared to the interactive experiences we all get every day when we are face to face on the subways or on a bike.

Los Angeles is a broken city — the public transportation system was destroyed in favor of the automobile. Now people spend hours every day just trying to get from one place to another. Hours alone. Hours polluting. What a waste. Thanks to groups like TA and Mayor Bloomberg, NY is moving forward in a progressive and thoughtful manner. By reducing available parking (again in congested densely populated areas close to public transport), we all win. Less parking means less cars — period.

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