Wrong rail pick will keep us in cars

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on June 24, 2009 at 3:00 AM, updated June 24, 2009 at 3:10 AM

Wake up, South Jersey! We most urgently must solve big issues:

- Global warming and environmental destruction.

- How people get around, i.e., automobiles, oil usage, and how the United States is being held hostage to oil-exporting countries.

- How we've become a country of service industries rather than a producer of products, relying on imports and increasing national debt.

- Deterioration of towns and cities.

We used to be world leaders. I travel regularly to northwestern Europe. People there now perceive us as a Third World country, unable to manage our affairs. How embarrassing!

These countries have clean, efficient, frequent high-speed inter-city regional and light-rail systems. They have clean trolleys and buses within cities. Their towns have separate bicycle lanes along roads and bike paths through meadows and woods. There is bicycle parking in towns and at rail stations.

These European countries have few malls. Instead, there are viable downtowns with department stores.

Young and old people in these countries live in clean apartments and condominiums in viable cities and towns, preserving open space. Public transportation is meaningful where people live and work. Children walk or bicycle to school, or take safe public transit. There are no school buses or driving to school.

Also, wind turbines flourish, but not close to homes. There are tax breaks for solar panels, plus there are hydrogen-fueled and hybrid buses. Gasoline is prohibitively taxed to $8 a gallon. Manufacturing and building their own products flourishes.

Why do I oppose the proposed light-rail line between Camden and Glassboro? We should be bold leaders, not laggards behind northwestern Europe. Change our way of life! Build rail lines north and south along Interstate Routes 295, 42 and 55, and perimeter trains, buses and trolleys to connect these systems.

Bicycle lanes should converge at rail stations and in towns. Downtowns should be places to live, with supportive amenities.

Electrify rail lines with thousands of wind turbines. Trains, bicycles, turbines, and steel must be manufactured here. Rail cars on the existing Camden-Trenton River Line came from Germany.

The current Gloucester County rail proposal does not address the big issues. It will not take untold thousands of cars off our highways, it cannot revitalize towns competing with malls, and will not enhance industry or jobs. Instead, it will destroy open space for parking for only a few riders, at huge taxpayers' expense.

Peter Speth
Deptford Township