We’re all on pins and needles about the election. Two weeks out, it seems pointless to write about anything else. I’ve already voted, as have millions of other Americans. Now we wait, and hope the whole thing doesn’t fall apart in a spasm of violence and voter intimidation on Election Day.
Can you believe we are worried about this in the United States of America? One thing my friends in Europe admire about us is our political stability. Some of them have lived through overthrow and upheaval; some are still living through it. But we have democratic institutions dating to the 1700s that are supposed to protect us from authoritarianism and insure peaceful transitions of power. That’s what we should see when this is all over: a peaceful transition. But it’s hardly guaranteed.
Most of us have already made up our minds, but that doesn’t seem to slow the outpouring of vitriol on our airwaves and social media. It doesn’t stop the glossy flyers from filling my mailbox every morning. It doesn’t stop the distortions, slurs, and outright lies.
I never intended to write about politics. This is a blog about transportation, about alternatives to the omnipresent car culture that has entwined Americans in a web of car loans, insurance premiums, greenhouse gas emissions, expanses of parking lots, jammed Interstate highways, and thousands of annual accepted deaths and injuries. It happens all over the world, of course, but we Americans seem particularly slow to embrace measures that could mitigate the damage, such as pedestrian-oriented downtowns, bicycle infrastructure, and public transportation.
Alternatives to the car culture weren’t prominent on the public radar in 1972, when Joe Biden began riding Amtrak regularly between his home in Delaware and his job in the U.S. Capitol. Biden began taking the train after a car accident claimed the lives of his wife and daughter and injured his two sons. The train provided the means for him to get home to his boys every night and still get work done. In the years since, Biden has been a staunch supporter of rail service in the U.S., and he has also been that rare politician who lives a policy he espouses. He’s made friends on the train in much the same way I have come to know people by sharing rides on the Bangor bus system. According to one estimate, he’s traveled two million miles on American trains, the equivalent of four round trips to the Moon.
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Links:
Why is Joe Biden called “Amtrak Joe”?
