Riff-Raff are now Off the Road!

One of the best aspects of the high gasoline (petrol, fuel, gas) prices is that it forces people off the road. This aspect of price creep has always been known and is a POLICY in some nations - and REALLY wanted by some politicians in the US.

The idea is really simple: price fuel up so high that people feel pain and then seek alternative transportation - which just happens to be conveniently provided by the people who want mass transit - buses and rail - and just happen to control them.

In Oregon it is METRO Region Government (their motto should be: 'Paid for by everyone -- accountable to No One') that pushes this agenda. This government body has ensured that no new roads - or expansions of existing roads - has occurred over the last 30 years at all in Portland Oregon area. Their latest proposal wants a $5 toll (each way or only coming into Oregon has never been stated) to cut down demand on use of the bridges into Oregon - with the result to force people to use bike, bus, and light rail to get to work and meet their environmental political goals.

The price of fuel - now around $4.28 a gallon locally - has had that effect on traffic - it is getting really easy to drive again to work. What was taking me around an hour to drive is now down to around 40 minutes - and today it took me only 20. All the people who work at the lower end of the economy cannot absorb the cost of fuel has given up their TIME to travel to save money spent on gas and instead use bus / rail to get to work. Course this usually doubles or triples THEIR commute time. But that is of no concern by the government at all.

This is like placing a cover charge admission. If you cannot afford the cover charge they do not want you there since you likely will not buy food / drink anyway. Any admissions charge keeps out the riff-raff. A person from Hillsboro wanting to get to Tigard - normally a 40 minute drive - takes 2 1/2 hours using a bus to do the same trip. Thus they can spend 5 hours on a bus there and back instead of 80 minutes. It wastes THEIR time - but the policy makers don't care at all if it does. It shows people using the system they are in charge of and want people to use. Wasting consumer time IS NOT a consideration for any public transit system.

The local Portland City, and METRO government has as their philosophy it is better to waste people's time and make them use bus / train / bikes than use a car no matter what. People's time can be wasted as long as it is good for the environment.

These are the same people who then will routinely use a Government car, plane to get somewhere instead of a bus. They always explain that their time is "too valuable" to waste using trains / buses since they have so much to do on behalf of the citizens.

Very Soviet.