Cali politicians reprimanded for not de-car-ing

While it's lovely that our politicians give lip service to green transportation issues, it's not so lovely when those same politicians don't actually green their transport. Lately, the L.A. blogosphere and media have been busy pointing out the contradictions between the walk and the talk:

>> Daymen of Street Heat reports that Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa says he'll take public transit more often, after admitting at a transportation conference that it's been awhile since he, a Metro board member, regularly rode mass transit.

>> Jason Burns at blogging.la complains that Sen. Barbara Boxer provides only driving directions, and no mass transit  information, to a "meeting about the evils of cars." The meeting was about the EPA decision to deny California permission to set its own car emissions standards -- a decision Boxer has criticized.

>> Ken Bensinger of the L.A. Times notes that while Schwarzenegger keeps touting hydrogen as the future of green cars, we still lack a hydrogen infrastructure. In fact, some hydrogen fueling stations are closing down! This chicken and egg problem is one that Andrew C. Revkin of Dot Earth has also discussed.

Below is the one piece of video proof I have that Villaraigosa has actually tried taking the subway:

Thanks to FredCamino of MetroRiderLA for taking that footage.

Photo by Ringo H.W. Chiu / For The Times

Comments

[Raphael]

All things told, I think it's more important that politicians actually do something to make transit easier (through funding it) than change their personal behavior.