Muddled Priorities
This morning’s news in Costa Rica are a little disappointing given the current state of world affairs. While the government’s ombudsman flatly rejected the concession (Spanish) to conduct a feasibility study on a metropolitan electric light rail system, plans are underway to build overpasses, underpasses (Spanish) and highways for petroleum-guzzling vehicles from one coast to the other.
Exhibit A: The Growing Problem
Now don’t get me wrong, I’m no fan of traffic congestion, but adding highways, lanes and overpasses to solve a traffic problem is akin to buying a bigger belt to solve an obesity problem. With fuel prices going through the roof at a frantic pace, and this country producing exactly zero barrels of oil per year, you’d think the highest possible priority would be to alleviate that immense burden on the economy.
Exhibit B: The Admittedly Old-School, Yet Unabashedly Practical Solution
Reviving the coast-to-coast cargo/passenger train, plus adding a light rail urban network on existing tracks (or at least the free land that they’re on), would go light-years towards both alleviating traffic congestion and the yearly petroleum bill. And that’s just on the transportation end of things — don’t get me started on the electricity generation hoopla going on down here.
Jeff :: Apr.30.2008 :: Livin' in Costa Rica ::
