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From: KFL%MX.LCS.MIT.EDU@MC.LCS.MIT.EDU
Newsgroups: mod.politics
Subject: Commuting
Message-ID: <12239244385.34.MCGREW@RED.RUTGERS.EDU>
Date: Mon, 15-Sep-86 20:17:24 EDT
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Posted: Mon Sep 15 20:17:24 1986
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    From: strick%lownlab.UUCP@harvard.HARVARD.EDU

    Oh, but Kieth, why should they government keep me from driving my
    BMW in the bus lane if that's where I want to be.

  The owner of the road has the right to set the rules for its usage.
  I think that roads should be privately owned, but that doesn't
change the principle.  The government should NOT be able to keep you
from using a private road in any way that you and the owner of the
road agree on.

    I think the commuter problem is caused less by government zoning
    laws than by people voluntarily moving away from the cities.

  And one of the main reasons people move away from the cities is
because the property tax is much lower in the suburbs.
  It isn't just employees that are moving to the suburbs.  The places
where they work are moving there too.  I live in the Washington DC
suburbs, but actually go to DC only once or twice a year.
  I wish my company (in the suburbs) was closer to my apartment (in
the suburbs), but thanks to zoning, the company is in an area with
only office buildings and shopping centers, and my apartment is in an
area with only apartments and houses.

    Look who lives in Roxbury and who lives in Lincoln.  Or to give
    you an example you may be more familiar with, look at the
    difference between the neighborhood conveniently located behind
    the capitol building and the neighborhood inconveniently located
    all the way out in Georgetown.

  Both of those areas are considered to be in the center of the city.

    ... you must recognize that a large source of the commuter traffic
    problem is the result of individual decisions to live in the
    scenic suburbs.

  Around here, the city is a lot more scenic than the suburbs.
  You must recognize that an equally large source of the commuter
traffic problem is the result of zoning board decisions.  And that
many of those individual decisions are based on backdoor zoning, i.e.
tax rate differentials, urban renewal, etc.
                                                              ...Keith

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