Beijing Takes Tips from Streetsblog for Olympic Games
by Alvin MacIntoshJuly 21st, 2008, 8:51 am
Stagger our work schedules? Alternate driving days according to registration number? Telecommute? Surveillance cameras to catch rule-breakers? Sounds like something from the archives of Streetsblog or Transportation Alternatives.
No, friends, this is the work of Communist China as it prepares Beijing for the upcoming Olympic Games.
China is a sad case in our point that, failing real, convenient alternatives to driving your own car, the only way to get half the cars off the street is by Stalinist diktat.
The penalty per violation? 100 yuan. That’s about $15 at current exchange rates. Too bad the average Chinese earns just $5,300 per year. If the U.S. were to implement a fine of similar proportions, the meter maids would be handing out $865 tickets if one of the more than 10,000 new cameras and ultrasonic and microwave detection scanners catches a whiff of you driving your car on the wrong day.
America means being able to choose to do the right thing, not having half of your paycheck go to pay a traffic ticket issued by an ever-expanding police state. Real change does not happen by fiat.
Besides, the Chinese will probably just go right back to polluting up a storm after the Olympic torch leaves Beijing.
Posted in Fines, Third World Hellholes, Tickets, Traffic Congestion |
Why stop with tickets and fines? Why not shoot anyone who disobeys your rules. Che style.
This reminds me of Virginia’s stupid punitive driver fees that were like $2000 for speeding.
China doesn’t have the market on stupidity cornered.
Spoken like a true racist Chinese hater who has never rode the Lex 4/5/6 Line at 5 PM
Wu -
First, I don’t recall Mayor Bloomberg — or Rudy — ever forcing a million New Yorkers onto the 4/5/6 overnight — or ever. To my knowledge, the NYC subway, the DC Metro, the Boston T, and the Chicago L have never been so full to prompt system administrators to close trains to new riders.
Second, there isn’t a single racist iota in either the article or the author. If you think a particular section was racist, please point it out. We at Commuter Outrage may be equal opportunity offenders, but we aren’t bigots. My quarrel is with the oppressive, unelected, totalitarian, capitalist-when-it’s-convenient, environmentalist-a-month-before-it-hosts-the-Olympic-Games regime and its last-minute band-aids. As the greenie weenies are quick to point out, it takes a long time for pollution to abate. The International Olympic Committee should have thought a little harder before sticking the Summer Olympics in one of the world’s most polluted cities.
As with everything on this site, claims without data are like bringing a knife to a gun fight.
Wu,
How do you know some of us aren’t Chinese?