Time to admit that car-dependency is a bad idea.

Having a car-dependent society means that all kinds of people will be driving under all kinds of conditions. People under stress, disoriented, emotional, etc. It is easy to say "people should be responsible," but where do you draw the line? Taking that bumper-sticker thinking to its logical conclusion, we should not waste money on stop signs or traffic signals.
Instead, why not just design a system that is safe for humans under a larger range of circumstances? For example: make public transit free, plant gardens of vegetables and flowers in every other street, and abolish the private auto.

Driving into the city -- to see flowers

The flower show is a time of irony. Honking horns, parking mania. Big, stinking, flora-killing vehicles descending on the city. Acres of paved-over paradise to speed the journey. The self-satisfied suburbanites pop out and scamper to the show. The beautiful flowers are locked and guarded behind cement. Heaven forbid the homeless might get to see them. Then, for the return home, the beast-vehicle is retrieved from its temporary cement cave. Home it speeds, home to low-tax, good-school, sprawl heaven.

Yo, people. You can keep living in subsidized sprawl-ville. But please stop voting against public transit. We are tired of supporting your wasteful lifestyle. We would like to make the whole city a garden and take the flowers out from behind the locked doors and the extra police protection.

CATA may go fare free - Local | Centre Daily Times - State College, PA | Penn State, Nittany Lions, weather, news, jobs, homes, apartments, real estate

A rider boards a CATA bus along College Avenue. CDT/Christopher Weddle

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/2011/03/08/2567279/cata-may-go-fare-free.html#ixzz1G441m9G5

CATA may go fare free - Local | Centre Daily Times - State College, PA | Penn State, Nittany Lions, weather, news, jobs, homes, apartments, real estate: "A state-funded study set to start later this year will analyze the universal access concept, which allows mass transit users to ride without paying a fare at that time.

While the “U-pass” system often targets student populations, the study also will analyze a scenario for broader Centre Area Transportation Authority bus riders."