Brawling with Sprawl

“Beneath the debate’s rhetorical surface, though, lies a subliminal refrain that you sometimes have to listen for carefully or might miss: ‘Cars are bad. Stop driving.’ The message — usually heard from Washington — came through undisguised in a recent AP story (quoting) Ralph DeGennaro, exec-dir of Taxpayers for Common Sense, as equating our record level of highway investment to ‘Taxpayer money... being highjacked for unneeded roads that cause sprawl.’

“Blaming the automobile for sprawl is like blaming improved health care for the problems of old age. Yes, you probably wouldn’t have one without the other, but the benefits far outweigh the costs.

“On the issue of to-drive or not-to-drive, Americans vote with their gas pedals every day. Granted, they don’t like congestion... But they have their mobility, their freedom to chose. They certainly wouldn’t say they’ve been hijacked or coerced into their relationship with the automobile. And they certainly would object loudly to government trying to dictate that driving be curtailed.” Bradley Mallory, Pennsylvania Sec of Transp in “Mobility & Livability” on Penn DOT website.