Reuters: White House slams carpooling, new road fees better

[catgirl]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Carpooling won't do much to reduce U.S. highway congestion in urban areas, and a better solution would be to build new highways and charge drivers fees to use them, the White House said on Monday.

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"It is increasingly appropriate to charge drivers for some roadway use in the same way the private market charges for other goods and services," the White House said in its annual report on the U.S. economy.

While some urban areas have designated roads for vehicles with two or more passengers, those high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes are often underused because carpooling is becoming less popular, the administration said.

Based on the latest data supplied by the White House, only about 13 percent of motorists carpooled to work in 2000. That compared with 20 percent of daily American commuters in 1980.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070212/pl_nm/bush_economy_report_transportation_dc;_ylt=AvLHtYhXIIKdNhFgx295Aies0NUE

Can you say STUPID?

[BushOut06]

1. This is an * idea - of course it's stupid - n/t

nt

[AndyA]

2. Road fees = NEW TAX.

They just don't want to use the "T" word, yet so many things they've done are basically just a new way to tax the middle class.

Nazi pigs. You can put lipstick on them, but they're still Nazi pigs.

[Dr.Phool]

3. Is there nothing that these idiots don't want to privatize?

[Ian David]

4. I fucking hate Der Chimpenfuhrer. n/t

[catgirl]

5. They desperately need a distraction...

but this is ridiculous.

[saigon68]

6. The Repuke PIGS FEED at the public trough

[crikkett]

7. public transit, stupid!!

Nobody would need to drive if the highways were railways and a decent mass transit system was in place.

[Eugene]

8. As the Bushies said in 2001, conservation is oh so 1970's.

Consume! Consume! Consume! And secure the needed energy by any means necessary.
The Bush administration sure has come a long way on the environment in the past six years! :eyes:

[Cassandra]

9. They can't figure out a way to profit from...

carpooling.

[truthisfreedom]

10. Bushco, again raising taxes on the "little people."

They're professional pilferers too.

[rodeodance]

11. we paid our fees with our taxes already!

[SemperEadem]

14. thank you

I say the same thing everytime I drive on the NJ Turnpike.

[ShortnFiery]

12. In the D.C. Area we need to better support Train and Bus Commuting

It is a nightmare getting to downtown D.C. to pick up one's spouse at 5 PM. If you still have a shred of sanity and nerves left, the drive home is twice as frustrating ... it's a parking lot up and down I 95 and Route 1 between 5 and 7 PM on weekdays.

The only people who are privy to the Metro are 1) young married or single professionals (GS 12 to GS 14s) with NO Children who can rent *tiny* apartments; 2) Wealthy SES Government Workers (pulling in 130,000 plus); OR people who were smart enough to buy in the DC Area 10 years back when housing costs within the beltway were not astronomical.

Therefore, the average government worker with kids who wishes to own a home must commute at least 30-45 miles from D.C. The Amtrak, Commuter trains, and Bus Car Pool services support these commuters but there's increasing need for more of them NOT toll roads. :(

Unless you like to be under "high stress" for one and one half to two hours to get to work, or pick up two passengers in a "slug" line for a "50 minute" drive to D.C., you are stuck with the TRAIN or the BUS if you work regular hours.

[Megahurtz]

13. I Can Say

they just want everyone to burn more Oil.

That's always what it's about for them, is more money for them.

Always.

[Parche]

15. STUPID

And the all the nations airlines are going to fly Beech 1900's and ground all of their
757's and 737's !!!!

Sounds like a Republican idea...

[Vidar]

16. Reagan had his "killer trees", but shrub manages these whoppers daily.

[sakabatou]

17. .

:banghead:

[Trillo]

18. Of course it's better!

It sells more cars!
It sells more gas!
It sells roads themselves!

(don't pay no attention to the fact the taxpayers paid for the roads in the first place!)

Mentally Beat those people who've been using carpools! Tell them that they're not really good. Tell all the drivers burning gas they're the pinnacle of government engineering!

Warm fuzzies to multiple car families, warm fuzzies to consumers, warm fuzzies to wastefulness.

(If you don't realize this post is sarcasm, read it again)

Why am I not surprised this all centers around "Big Oil" and "Car Manufacturers"?


ON a more serious note, I'm pissed that a corporation can write off ALL it's damn expenses, but a citizen cannot. If a citizen has a job X miles away, their damn expenses to get to work MUST be deductible, or the corporatist game of superiority and empire was LOST by citizens before it was played.

[FlaGranny]

19. I wonder

where he proposes to put all these new roads. Does he think all our major cities and their suburbs have all this vacant land they can stick roads on?

[kestrel91316]

20. Yeah!!! Let's privatize ALL roads and highways!!!!!!!!!!!

That will solve everything!!!!!!!!

[iwillalwayswonderwhy]

21. AH, Private roads for rich people

What a surprise.

[Pale Blue Dot]

22. Of course, this would mostly effect the poor, who would pay a higher percentage of their income.

Just another way to transfer wealth from the poor to the rich.

[superconnected]

23. The worst thing about living on the east coast in the late 1980's

was toll roads and toll bridges.

ewww. I hated them.

[all.of.me]

24. is this the same white house that denies global warming?!?!?!?!?

:crazy: :eyes:

[Porcupine]

32. Yep, and they're denying Peak Oil even harder.

In ten years the highways are going to look abandoned because they will be. Mexico's largest oil field is in decline. All of the North Sea Oil fields are in decline. In the ME only Iran and Iraq have any potential of invcreasing production to make up losses elsewhere and that is seriously unlikely.

America should not build one more mile of new highway. Not one.

[brentspeak]

25. You can bet there's some chickenhawk dweeb GOP think-tanker behind this idea

[AngryOldDem]

26. Makes sense to me.

Not. Isn't California thinking of doing this?

:banghead:

[Orangepeel]

27. Jesus! How can they be against carpooling?

:banghead:

[lovuian]

28. Against car pooling thats truly the most idiotic

idea of them all

[BadgerKid]

29. Lots of money flows to skim $$ off of

Initial borrowing of funds from finance industry. check.
Building contracts. check
Toll fees. check
Road maintenance. check
Increased gas usage. checkerooni

[The Backlash Cometh]

30. This has the construction industry's seal of approval.

[Judi Lynn]

31. Republics have so many ways to gouge the American public without

calling it "taxes." Their ways all add up to the money flowing to the well-connected wealthy.

What an astonishing bunch of a-holes.

[truthisfreedom]

33. It is a tax. Call it what it is... a tax on the "little people".

Let's face facts. And let's call bush on what he's doing... taxing what he considers to be "underlings".

[Doondoo]

34. K&R

[happydreams]

35. It's the first step toward disaster....

for the oil companies. It smacks of mass transportation, which reduces oil use, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions, which the oil companies don't want because it will reduce demand for their product.

The auto industry won't want it because it will reduce demand for their products, ditto for the auto parts, supplies companies.

Big oil and auto co's destroyed mass transit back in the 40's, Bush=Big Oil.

Just some thoughts.

[HuffleClaw]

36. ????!!!!!

geeze, just when ya think they could get no sillier...