Originally Posted by bragi

I'm saying there MUST be a gentler way to enlighten car users. Here's the issue as I see it:

I'm an ex-Army Ranger, a graduate of Outward Bound, and a very firm believer in objective reality. When presented with an extremely unpleasant fact, I clearly understand that the universe doesn't give a rat's ass about my own feelings on the subject. The unpleasant fact is still there.

Many people in the US, however, are not so blessed. They believe what is most comforting to them. Rather than confront the fact that their own consumption is endangering our national interests, they'd rather focus on the myth that Obama is a socialist, or that global climate change is a liberal conspiracy.

Some of these ill-informed people, frightened of terrorists, trying to confront the fact that they now have to compete for jobs with people in Malaysia who can do what they do just as well for 1/4 the price, have transferred their fears to easier targets. They can't really do much about any of these things, but they can do something about the extra bike lanes, so they express their frustrations here.

In the long run, the bike lanes, the parking fees, the extra density all have to occur, but they have to be implemented with some buy-in from the people who are affected by these policies. The problem, in Seattle anyway, is that these policies are driven from the top, by developers (who are almost all total dicks), by politicos, and by self-righteous activists who don't have nearly as much public support as they imagine. At some point, the powers that be need to actually communicate with people on the ground, and my perception is that this simply isn't happening.