This past week, CP attended three different public meetings on local transportation issues, and stay tuned, there are more to come. One evening meeting he attended by car due to the weather forecast and the need to do shopping errands. One he rode his bike to and the other he walked, in addition to normal and frequent biking and walking around town. At each of these meetings, the huge majority of attendees drove their cars. This is evident by seeing all their car keys in hand upon arrival, watching the arrival and departure and even by doing a poll. The irony is staggering. This, dear reader, this is the problem--the problem that must be addressed. We are so used to driving and driving and driving. Yet, that is the problem. That is the inconvenient truth. How do we expect those who drive, and always drive, to plan for our future if they cannot get out of their cars now?
And, the biggest bogeyman of all is not the commuters leaving our area but the throngs of commuters who not only live and work in the city, but who can walk or ride a bus to and from any of the hundreds of stops, most all of which are within a half-mile walk. But they don’t. Instead they go to meetings and plan, plan, plan. Yet they plan from a position of ignorance and from a position of weakness in that they don’t try to live the “alternative” way, they just do business as usual, yet they talk and talk all about light rail, which for a variety of reasons, is about last on the list of things we need.
However, it was at the Comprehensive Plan meeting that CP became thoroughly fed up with the protestations, whining and ignorance of the volunteer committee of Mayoral appointees who would rather send hours and hours in meetings than actually doing something--such as learning about our real walking, transit and biking challenges. There is the longtime local business owner and activist who drives the one mile to his work within Annapolis because he says he cannot figure out the bus system. CP has heard similar comments from this person and so many others in similar positions that he is sick of hearing them. They will attend meetings (by driving to them) and then whine on incessantly about how they cannot figure out how to take a bus--in their own hometown no less!
Oddly, thousands do figure this out every day, many of whom do not even speak or read English and most of whom certainly do not own businesses. So what is the real problem here? At one meeting, a highly educated business owner told the group how she feels bad for people sitting in shelters at bus stops when she drives by. After we put up nice glass shelters, she now complains that they get hot in them! But what about in the winter when they get warm, CP wonders? Awww, were her liberal proclivities touched? Why does she not get out of her car and take the bus? Why does she not stop and offer them a ride? Instead she suggests we have grand schemes to familiarize people with the bus system. Okay--so quit going to meetings and do it!
And then there is the other highly educated professional who lives off West St and works in West Annapolis yet who drives to work every day. This person says we need a shuttle route through West Annapolis. When CP said we had one and asked if he ever took it, this professional meeting-goer and committee member said that’s not the issue, which was seconded by the highly paid planning consultant who said personal choices were not the point of the meeting, to which she then added, the meeting was not intended for public comments. Okay, so the ironies and shortcomings are clear. The first hour of the meeting of the Comprehensive Plan Committee did nothing except set forth in exquisite detail the description of the same old problems over and over. When CP was informed that there would likely be no public comment--he left!
This is the inconvenient truth--until you are willing to reduce your car use and find other ways to get around, it will be business as usual. No amount of meetings or reports will change a thing. Make the personal political and vice verse….and let’s not even get started on light rail. Our city will never have much of a say in that issue. Here’s why--where in Annapolis can we accommodate a rail line or a station? We can’t even agree on a park and ride location and that does not have to involve state and federal bureaucracy! Puhleeze! Let’s have buses--then we’ll talk rail.
