StarTribune.com

Everybody’s writing about transportation

Posted on October 8th, 2008 – 12:11 PM
By Roadguy

Katherine Kersten discusses the automobile’s role in the economic crisis, while multimedia maven James Lileks shares his thoughts on the Southwest light-rail line.

9 Responses to "Everybody’s writing about transportation"

Matty says:

October 8th, 2008 at 9:12 pm

It’s good to see that James is finally conceding in his fight against rail transit.

It’s not surprising to see that Kathern, on the other hand, still misses the point. The automobile has played a tremendous role in the decline of our economy that we are currently weathering. Where she is wrong (as usual) is in that it’s not that people buy cars on credit that’s the problem–the problem is the over use of cars and the resultant drain on public and private resources that results.

mattaudio says:

October 9th, 2008 at 11:31 am

Katherine Kersten is a blessing to us liberals, because she hurts her own cause.

Are you smart? Have you thought about something?

Think again.. Haha

Avidor says:

October 13th, 2008 at 1:20 pm

Here’s a couple of transportation articles:

http://is.gd/3ZBe

http://is.gd/3CwZ

Mary Kiffmeyer supports PRT:

http://is.gd/3ZAk

MJ says:

October 14th, 2008 at 2:50 am

The automobile has played a tremendous role in the decline of our economy…

Really? Which TLC press release did this come from?

There was also this issue of people buying houses based on worthless mortgages, undercapitalized banks buying worthless mortgages, investors buying securities backed by worthless mortgages, and the federal government encouraging lenders to continue to originate worthless mortgages… and of course now the federal government buying up large amounts of worthless mortgages.

It’s all here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzJmTCYmo9g

Snookie B says:

October 14th, 2008 at 12:37 pm

One thing that never gets mentioned in the financial news is that too many car loans have been made to unqualified buyers, and now the auto industry is suffering the same fate as the housing industry.

MJ says:

October 16th, 2008 at 11:03 am

Snookie,

You’re right. Just like home foreclosures, I think we’ll also start to see a number of vehicles get reposessed as people stop making payments they can’t afford…unless Congress decides that this too is a necessary part of “Main Street” bailout.

Matty says:

October 27th, 2008 at 8:29 pm

Thanks for misquoting me, MJ. I wrote that the over use of cars is the problem. The auto played a role (one of many roles) in that way (being over used).

Nice try.

MJ says:

October 28th, 2008 at 3:54 pm

Matty,

You were not misquoted. I took your statement verbatim from your earlier post. You can re-read it if you like. You might argue that there are multiple interpretations for your claim, but I took away the literal interpretation.

Matty says:

October 28th, 2008 at 9:23 pm

Yes, and I’m reiterating the context of my verbatim comment that you (partially) quote.