Who Loves Traffic? Dan and the Highway Lobby
U.S. PIRG has picked a winner in its "21st Century Transportation" video contest, and it's this irony-soaked entry. Meet "Dan," a guy who just can't get enough stop-and-go time on the highway. He loves sitting in traffic, and the last thing he wants to see is adequately funded transit giving people an attractive alternative to car commuting.
By
Ben Fried
3:23 PM EDT on August 21, 2008
U.S. PIRG has picked a winner in its “21st Century Transportation” video contest, and it’s this irony-soaked entry. Meet “Dan,” a guy who just can’t get enough stop-and-go time on the highway. He loves sitting in traffic, and the last thing he wants to see is adequately funded transit giving people an attractive alternative to car commuting.
Who feels this way in real life? Highway builders, for one. Without traffic jams (and the erroneous assumption that more road capacity can fix them), would anyone tolerate the lavish subsidies that keep their industry growing?
U.S. PIRG is using this video in their campaign to direct more money to transit in next year’s transportation spending package. If you like it, you can send it around.
Ben Fried started as a Streetsblog reporter in 2008 and led the site as editor-in-chief from 2010 to 2018. He lives in Ditmas Park, Brooklyn, with his wife.
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