George Murphy writes, in part: "As Americans we have little sense of
community, something that shows itself from ecclesiology to our attitudes
toward mass transit. We are also not very good at perservering with any
project that takes more than about 2 years (outside) to complete - which
probably has something to do with a U.S. representative's term!"
George,
I don't think that this mind set is unique to Americans. The more positive
attitude towards mass transit in Europe and Japan is, no doubt, the effect
of the high population density in those countries. Given the choice, most
people, European as well as North Americans, would opt for the comfort of
private transportation. Look at the European freeways, they are as glutted
with cars as on this side of the Atlantic. In Paris, it is not unusual to
see cars parked two rows wide along each side of the streets.
I've been fortunate to have had to travel to Europe on business for the last
20 years. As a train buff, I would usually fly to Amsterdam or Paris and
use a Eurailpass to get around. Over the years, I've seen a marked
reduction in the train service, simply because more people in Europe have
access to private transportation. What is improving as far as rail service
is concerned, is the high speed trains (TGV in France and the Belgian-based
Thalys system).
As for the 2-year time horizon of US legislators, our <5 year terms are not
much better: the mail goal of an elected representative appears to be
re-election next time around! Maybe there is something to be said for
proportional representation, in addition to being a more democratic system
than the "first past the post" used in North America. Proportional
representation almost always results in coalition governments and the impact
of losing, say, 5% of the popular vote does not necessarily mean that a
party is turfed out of office.
Chuck
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