ग्रेटर बेंगलुरु अथॉरिटी (जीबीए) ने गुरुवार को कहा कि उसने पैदल यात्री स्थानों को पुनः प्राप्त करने के लिए चल रहे अभियान के तहत 1 जुलाई से 8 जुलाई के बीच बेंगलुरु के फुटपाथों से 430 किमी अतिक्रमण हटा दिया है, जबकि सड़क विक्रेताओं को आश्वासन दिया है कि उन्हें नए पहचान पत्र जारी किए जाएंगे और उनके व्यवसायों को स्थानांतरित करने में सहायता की जाएगी। यह दोहराते हुए कि पैदल यात्रियों की सुरक्षा सरकार…

Trains, trams/streetcars, bikes, pedestrian pathways, rapid bus transport, monorail, it doesn’t matter. No one should want their hometown to be a car dependent town. Not even people who like to drive should want their city to be completely car dependent.

Why?

Because more options to get around means fewer people who have to drive a car to get somewhere. And no matter how much you might like driving, I’m positive there’s at least one other person in your hometown who hates it as much as you love it.

Getting people to use something other than their own vehicle to get around improves traffic, which improves driving safety and road safety for everyone involved. Fewer private vehicles driving means fewer collisions and accidents of all sorts. That’s just numbers after all, fewer cars means fewer car accidents.

So if you personally like driving, but hate other drivers, you should go out and support whatever public transit initiative your area is trying to set up.

Whining republicans again.........why? What harm to convert abandoned railroad rights of way to pedestrian or bicycle paths? I used to be a rabid bicycle rider, until my discomfort with crazy, reckless and speeding drivers caused me to reconsider, and cut back, biking. I remember once when I was riding on a public road to get to the Illinois Prairie Path. I was doing all the right things, riding on the right side, staying as close to the curb as possible, signaling when I needed to. Some old fart man, with his old fart wife or girlfriend, pulled up really close to me, dangerously, as his car was moving and the woman was rolling down the window, and yelling at me me to get my “fucking toy” off the road. I thoroughly enjoyed kicking his rear fender as he drove by, and then scooting down a skinny alleyway so he couldn’t get me.

Excerpt from this Wall Street Journal story:

A handful of farmers in Ohio’s Mahoning County are getting an unpleasant lesson in government power at the hands of a local park district. Mill Creek MetroParks, a public agency governed by five unelected commissioners, wants to take over an abandoned railroad line running through about a dozen local farms for a recreational bike path. Last year, when landowners balked at the idea of strangers wandering across their properties, the park district decided to invoke eminent domain and gain right of way.

“I asked the park representatives if there was any way we could negotiate on this, and they told me, ‘The time for talking is over. We’re taking this property,’ ” says Ohio state Rep. Don Manning, who tried to intervene on the farmers’ behalf. Rep. Manning, a Republican, has sponsored legislation that would limit the use of eminent domain in Ohio.