KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (08/22/86)
To: Hank.Walker@UNH.CS.CMU.EDU
One of the main reasons that roads are so clogged during rush hour
is that few people live within walking distance from where they work.
Few people CAN live within walking distance from where they work,
thanks to zoning laws. I can understand not wanting a factory next
door to one's house (not that one should have the power to prevent
it), but what line of reasoning says there shouldn't be office
buildings, schools, churches, or grocery stores near one's house?
Where I live there is actually a taxpayer subsidized minibus system
intended primarily for old people to go shopping! If we didn't have
zoning laws they would live within easy walking distance of the stores
and they wouldn't need subsidized bus service.
The main problem with urban bus service is that it is almost always
run by the government. Government has no incentive to make it
comfortable or reliable. Bus routing depends more on political
pressure groups than on demand for service.
This is not to say that bus service is now a lucrative field for
private enterprise. Once a person has bought a car and learned to
drive and payed all the various licensing fees and special taxes, he
is not likely to commute some other way. Especially since buses are
slowed down by private cars to the same extent as other private cars
are, so there is no gain in speed. (Special lanes just for carpools
and buses are a promising innovation in some areas.)
...Keith
-------KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU (09/16/86)
From: strick%lownlab.UUCP@harvard.HARVARD.EDU
Oh, but Kieth, why should they government keep me from driving my
BMW in the bus lane if that's where I want to be.
The owner of the road has the right to set the rules for its usage.
I think that roads should be privately owned, but that doesn't
change the principle. The government should NOT be able to keep you
from using a private road in any way that you and the owner of the
road agree on.
I think the commuter problem is caused less by government zoning
laws than by people voluntarily moving away from the cities.
And one of the main reasons people move away from the cities is
because the property tax is much lower in the suburbs.
It isn't just employees that are moving to the suburbs. The places
where they work are moving there too. I live in the Washington DC
suburbs, but actually go to DC only once or twice a year.
I wish my company (in the suburbs) was closer to my apartment (in
the suburbs), but thanks to zoning, the company is in an area with
only office buildings and shopping centers, and my apartment is in an
area with only apartments and houses.
Look who lives in Roxbury and who lives in Lincoln. Or to give
you an example you may be more familiar with, look at the
difference between the neighborhood conveniently located behind
the capitol building and the neighborhood inconveniently located
all the way out in Georgetown.
Both of those areas are considered to be in the center of the city.
... you must recognize that a large source of the commuter traffic
problem is the result of individual decisions to live in the
scenic suburbs.
Around here, the city is a lot more scenic than the suburbs.
You must recognize that an equally large source of the commuter
traffic problem is the result of zoning board decisions. And that
many of those individual decisions are based on backdoor zoning, i.e.
tax rate differentials, urban renewal, etc.
...Keith
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