{"id":793,"date":"2007-05-07T05:06:25","date_gmt":"2007-05-07T11:06:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php\/index.php\/2007\/05\/07\/statements-without-evidence\/"},"modified":"2009-12-18T12:31:41","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T17:31:41","slug":"statements-without-evidence","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=793","title":{"rendered":"Statements Without Evidence"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve long advocated introducing toll roads to Minnesota, especially the metro area, as a substitute for generalized taxes to support road construction.<\/p>\n

Mentioning this around DFLers, of course, draws offense; to the DFL’s statist senses, all public goods are a public duty, with “public” meaning “the whole public” (or at least that part not favored by tax breaks from the DFL-strangled legislature).<\/p>\n

And as the standardbearer of all DFL folk “wisdom”, the Strib can’t help but vent for it, even when basically agreeing with the concept<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Tolls cannot substitute for government’s broad responsibility to raise the taxes needed to build and care for basic transportation.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Um – why?\u00a0<\/p>\n

I mean, if it were determined that tolls could <\/em>somehow replace gas and other taxes, why wouldn’t <\/em>we reassess this “responsibility?”<\/p>\n

The Strib does, in fact, support the experimental addition of a toll lane to 35W in the South Metro…:<\/p>\n

But tolls used specifically to relieve congestion and support transit on certain crowded roadways might be worth trying. Thus we applaud Minnesota’s application last week for federal money to refashion Interstate Hwy. 35W between Burnsville and downtown Minneapolis to include a toll lane for single drivers that would, in turn, help finance bus rapid transit service.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

…but, naturally, all\u00a0libertarian sense has been stripped from the proposal:\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea is to free up more space in regular lanes, draw more commuters to transit and coax others to alternate routes or times. A similar experiment in Stockholm raised bus ridership and reduced congestion by 20 percent.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Indeed, tolls (like so much of the “Transit” mania gripping the local center-left) are to be tools, used to further the powers-that-be’s frenzy of social engineering:<\/p>\n

Toll lanes should not be seen as “solving” the metro region’s severe shortfall in transportation funding. They cannot substitute for the Central or Southwest light-rail lines [Really?\u00a0 Why? – Ed<\/em><\/span>].\u00a0Tolls should always be set high enough to retain transit’s competitive advantage.\u00a0<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Does anyone proof-read this crap?<\/p>\n

What\u00a0“competitive advantage” does transit have?<\/p>\n

\u00a0 And care should be taken to assure that tolling doesn’t damage central business districts.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

One wonders if the Strib editorial board has reviewed the ghastly toll that its’ beloved Central Corridor light rail line is going to take on the non-“central” business district in the Midway and Frogtown – a district that has been saved by small, Asian business that is going to be gutted by nearly a decade of rail construction, for a line that will detract from rather than enhance the neighborhood (it’ll be a light rail rather than trolley line).<\/p>\n

One wonders if the Strib editorial board even understands any of this.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve long advocated introducing toll roads to Minnesota, especially the metro area, as a substitute for generalized taxes to support road construction. Mentioning this around DFLers, of course, draws offense; to the DFL’s statist senses, all public goods are a public duty, with “public” meaning “the whole public” (or at least that part not favored […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,17,2,104,28],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-media","category-minneapolis","category-minnesota-politics","category-trains-and-automobiles","category-st-paul"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=793"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7316,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/793\/revisions\/7316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}