Wellington flyover – “desperation wafting from heat of impatience”
Posted: April 7, 2013 Filed under: Letters | Tags: car cult, flyover, transportation, Wellington Leave a comment28 March, 2013
The Editor, The Dominion Post
Dear Editor:
The desperation wafting from the heat of impatience is palpable in the Dom Post Weekender editorial of 23 March (“Councillors flying in the face of reality”). At a time when it is universally understood that expanding public transport is the way to go in developing newly sustainable cities, the Dom Post rails at councillors who want to glance in that direction. Choosing between a flyover and an underground route at the Basin Reserve is a sideshow in that process, but the editorialist can’t even wait for that discussion to see the car cult mentality continue its imposition on Wellington.
The shallowness of the editorial’s argument is illustrated in the comment that “. . . buses run on roads”. Duh! The Dom Post, and any council, and the Transport Agency, know that world wide experience shows that making it easier to move cars around, as the Transport Agency claims for the flyover, induces more traffic so it doesn’t reduce congestion for long. The Dom Post and the other unnamed councillors are the ones flyover-ing in the face of reality.
Sincerely, Richard Keller