Segacs's World I Know

Posts Tagged ‘car’

In a wonderful start to the day, I left the dentist’s office this morning and promptly backed my car into an electric pole. Brilliant. Luckily nobody was hurt. But I’m in kind of a crappy mood . . . and it’s bound to be worse when I get the repair bill.

Montreal Gazette columnist Mike Boone adds his voice to the people who claim that the US’s war on Iraq is all about ooooooooooiiiil. His theory is about as bizarre as it gets: he claims that the US needs to attack Iraq because people insist on living in the suburbs and commuting to work:

I’m a big hero because I take the train and the métro to work, right? But yesterday morning was so cold that the Great Environmentalist left his car idling in the driveway for five minutes to warm it up for the drive to the train station.

In 1996, 10.1 per cent of Canada’s workforce used public transit. Five years later, it was 10.5 per cent.

That’s 1.4 million strap-hangers, compared with 10 million drivers (and another one million passengers in private vehicles.)

This is why there’s going to be war in Iraq. We’re petroleum junkies – and the census makes a pretty good case that Whitney Houston’s rehab is going better than ours.

I’ve heard the argument before that anyone who drives a car is public enemy #1. To that I say, give us decent public transit, and we won’t be forced to drive our cars as much. Does anyone really think I like sitting in gridlock twice a day? But I digress.

The theory that there will be war in Iraq because Bush simply woke up one morning and decided he’d like to see lower prices at the pump is incredibly absurd – to say the least. But of course, if Mike Boone believes it so much, he can sell his car. It won’t make the least bit of difference. Saddam Hussein will still be trying to acquire dangerous weapons to unleash on Israel and the West, and to use to massacre his own people. He’ll still be a crazy dictator and a world menace, and a major sponsor of terrorism. But if it makes Boone feel better . . .

No offense, Damian, but your provincial government has just given us a whole new cause to crack Newfie jokes.

Legislation banning handheld cellphones in cars was just passed by the Newfoundland cabinet.

“I know that all the other provinces realize that the use of cellphones by drivers is a problem,” said Walter Noel, the province’s government services minister. “They have various reasons not to act on it to date (but) I think we’ll see more provinces act before very long,” he said in an interview Friday.

Anyone caught breaking the law will receive four demerit points on their driver’s licence and fines ranging from $45 to $180.

This law is both restrictive and ridiculous. There are tons of idiots who drive erratically while on the phone, true. But there are also many people who use the phone responsibly. And what about other distractions, such as changing the radio station, drinking coffee, or checking makeup in the rearview mirror? Should all of those things be banned too?

Cell phone laws are always advocated by people looking for an easy scapegoat for road accidents. But there were plenty of accidents before cell phones were invented, and there will be plenty more even after this ban is imposed. Studies have indicated that there is no evidence that cell phone use causes accidents. This is a fluff law, designed to appease the public while solving nothing.

Well, not quite. You’ll still have to shell out the 12 bucks to park in a downtown lot. But plans to tax off-street parking have been shelved, for now at least.

It’s about time someone stopped the madness. Parking is already expensive enough without adding even more tax.

Parking spaces rake in $600 to $700 a year in hidden taxes, said Pierre Cléroux of Groupe Urbain, a coalition of businessmen who, backed by the chamber of commerce, oppose the tax.

“A supplementary tax on parking spaces is not justifiable – and for us it’s unacceptable,” he said. “For a person who has a monthly parking space in Montreal, 40 per cent of the cost is (already) taxes.”

Environmentalists and city planners usually advocate raising taxes on gas and parking as a means of discouraging people from driving and encouraging them to switch to public transit.

But I take serious issue with that. I’d love nothing more than to be able to leave my car at home – or sell it – and use a reliable, efficient public transportation system instead. It would save me money on gas, insurance, and maintenance, as well as the headaches of rush hour and the concern about drinking and driving, just to name a few reasons.

The trouble is, that reliable, efficient public transportation system doesn’t exist. Not for us suburbanites anyway. Our buses are few and far between and we don’t have a metro. Commuter trains are only convenient to people going straight downtown and back, and only at peak hours. My daily commute to work – maybe 75 minutes round-trip, even in traffic – would take well over 4 hours by public transit. Efficient? Hah!

The carrot-and-stick method of persuasion only works if you offer a carrot; namely, improved public transit. Until that happens, the government can wield the tax stick all it wants, and people will keep driving. We simply don’t have a choice.

A tragedy like this shouldn’t be funny. But it is.

SIX MILE, Ala. (AP) – Two sisters were killed when their vehicles collided head-on on a rural highway as they travelled to visit each other, authorities said.

Authorities said the women were driving in opposite directions on Alabama 25 on Sunday when one of the vehicles crossed the centre line, colliding with the other.