California is Organized to Promote Sales and Use of the Automobile

[courtesy of California Progress Report]

By TrafficBulldog

Carpooling. Seems simple enough. We build the HOV lanes, so why is participation dropping? It is all about people’s ability to find a carpool partner. The government terms it “rideshare matching”.

We have State and Local governments that oversee problems of : Traffic Congestion, Air Pollution, Global Warming, High Oil Prices, and the expectation that Californian domestic crude oil will run dry in 26 years, which fuels War over Oil.

There is CalEPA, California Air Resources Board, California Climate Action Team, the various Air Quality Management Districts, Caltrans, California Energy Commission, National Guard, the various Metro/Regional Transportation Authorities, and of course our elected leaders.

So far, we are starting to look like we are in the 1970’s again. The air is brown, traffic congestion continues to get worse, and oil prices are skyrocketing. Those were the ingredients that caused a Federal EPA take action and create carpooling programs. It was either that or even/odd day driving privileges.

Well, here we are 30 years later, but things have changed.

30 years later we have carpool lanes, but our government agencies are not supportive of using them for carpooling. In fact the support for carpooling is barely rhetoric at this point and it is unlikely that you would ever hear your elected officials talk about carpooling or promote it. So what has changed? The math of taxation.

Our leaders look at the taxation of the car as a means to balance budgets. And when our leaders are helping to protect the sale of cars (and even promote them) it really makes one pause to understand what all of the above mentioned agencies are really about.