What a great plan! Another "can't miss" proposition. Lets do this: we'll combine it simultaneously with METRIC WEIGHTS AND MEASURES.

Ah Lou. The voice of reason. You are a national treasure.

Hardly a coincidence that highway signs are the only place in America you find kilometers.

That's because roads are considered fair game for social engineers both Left and Right, as demonstrated by this site.

"Free" roads? What the heck is my gas tax money going for then?

What public transportation? Do you mean the bus that stops every 20 minutes at a stop that is a 20 minute walk (for six months in 100 degree heat) from my house? Oh and the bus that takes two hours to make the 45 minute trip downtown?

Just that 40 minutes of walking would end the obesity problem.

You've got to be pretty far up your own fundament to object to public roads as locii of social engineering.

No more so that a person who thinks that a higher gas tax will "end the obesity problem".

A sure sign of the social engineer (or a medical quack, they're closely related) is that a simple solution to a particular problem quickly becomes a cureall for everything and for everybody.

"Second, we should recognize that the administrative costs for cash payments are about three times higher than the same costs for payments made with fast lane devices. Since people who use fast lanes save the system money, their tolls should be reduced. Tolls on those who pay cash should be substantially increased, perhaps even doubled."

Ah yes, the attitude behind monthly bus passes. Which most cash-strapped poor people for whom bus transit is meant cannot get, as any trip down Denver's East Colfax Ave. can show you.

Somewhere in the bowels of Harvard, there are position papers that frown on such subsidizing of the lower/middle classes by the cash-economy poor. Not that OJ or Edward Glaeser would notice.

If you're not using an EasyPass transponder or haven't recently driven during the Boston rush hour, you may be at a disadvantage in considering the proposals made in the article. The "hidden hand" lives on.

OJ,
It's 45 minutes by car. Generally, walking 15 miles takes 4 hours.

"20 minute walk "

You'll just have to get one to drive there.

So speaks out Betters, who think that they should dictate how their Lessers should arrange their lives.

OJ, tell you what. Come out to my house in Algonquin, Illinois, in February and commute to my job-site in Schaumburg. It's only 12 miles, a straight shot down Rt 62. Any way you want except private automobile. Walk, ride a bike, wait for a bus, whatever. After you recover from the frostbite and the toe amputations, wait a few months and do the commute in August. Don't forget to take plenty of water and salt tablets.

Oh, sure, you say---just get IDOT to run a bus line. Well, the bus commute should not take much more than 2-3 hours, vs. my 35 minutes by car during rush hour. 'course, that bus line will take care of the few hundred of us who live northwest of Schaumburg, but you'd also need lots of other lines, to handle the other 19,000 employees who live at all the other compass points.

Sorry. I misunderstood you.

ray;

Only the janitor needs to be on-site.

OJ, nice to know that you know how our company should be run, without even knowing what it is or what we do.

You know, the founders had the idea of letting each state experiment on its own. How about let's start off with New Hampshire? You guys ban cars and force everybody to use buses and trains. In a few years, tell us how it all worked out.

So why get your panties in a knot over MA or London?