Friday, July 27, 2007

Parisians are reinventing the wheel

"The lesson for the next U.S. president: raise the taxes on fuel. A lot."


I've blogged a few times about this before and even went to the legislative branch of the government to insist. I'm glad that this NYT article shows the good side of a higher price for gas: better urban transportation. Using a car in the city is counterproductive and popular mainly because it became so when it was convenient (when there were less cars) and now the habit is impossible to lose.

I bike to work and can't say that I enjoy it very much, mostly because of this car culture. I wish more people were biking, including the mayor, so that the city adapts better to cyclists. I love the Circulator as a convenient and simple way to take the bus. It's actually the only bus I ever take because i can never figure out when and where the other ones are going. What about that: a simplification of bus lines that goes like this: a grid of blue buses that only go north-south (painted in blue) and red buses that only go East-West. You could jump in any bus at any time with at least an idea of where it's going.