LACK OF INCENTIVES ALLOWS WASTE

2 PARAGRAPHS 4 LIBERTY: 417

In the summer of 1957 my parents took my sister and me on a trip that included spending a few days in New York City. One of the things that still stays with me from that visit was a few rides in taxi cabs in which the driver would approach a red traffic light without any hesitation which would then turn green just as we entered the intersection. “How did you know?” asked my father to the driver. The response was that the signals on certain streets were synchronized to allow cars to travel at a certain rate of speed without having to stop at the signals. I’ll bet you any amount of money that the technology today is better than it was in 1957, so why don’t we have synchronized signals all around the country? I agree that there are some complicating factors such as pedestrians, bicyclists, different sized streets, emergency vehicles and changing traffic flows at different times of the day. But not all streets would be a part of the program, computers could be programmed differently depending upon the situations and pedestrian bridges could be built. The answer is that there is a lack of incentives for public officials to take the trouble to implement such fuel and time savings for drivers. But if the private sector were in charge, this would have been implemented universally decades ago.

To cite another example which we all have seen, many times cars will stop at a red traffic light, and then make a safe and legal right turn on that red light. But then the light at the intersection turns red for the opposing traffic and a green light for the car that has stopped and then left the intersection. Obviously this is also a true waste of time and fuel for the drivers. So why, for example, cannot we impose a ten-second delay before triggering the change in the signals? Imagine the savings in time and fuel, as well as the reduction of pollutants in the air from the needlessly burned fuel both in unnecessarily stopping, waiting and then resuming prior speeds! The private sector would have seen the problems and implemented these changes decades ago as well!

(BTW, if the purpose of today’s “Car Pool Lanes” is to encourage drivers to car pool, why do we not impose restrictions that car pool lanes can only be used if there are at least two licensed drivers in the car? If you are driving your three-year-old child in your car you are not decreasing the number of cars on the road. The private sector would understand and implement changes like this.)

Question for the week: Where does our country put all of its spare belly buttons? Answer: In the Naval Reserve. . .