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To the Editor: 

How to accommodate a million new Bay Area residents in the next 20 years seems like quite a problem. But is it the additional people who are the problem, or their cars . . . or the higher densities needed to make public transit a practical alternative? 

Driving a car is not a fundamental right. Elected officials can still pull the plug on public transit funding without violating the rights of anyone who is left stranded. But babies are still born with legs (not wheels) attached, so perhaps walking is the only mode of transportation we might claim as a natural or fundamental right. 

Many of us readily acknowledge that we’re forced to drive because the alternatives are inadequate. But the analysis always stops there. No one bothers to identify those guilty of the coercion. Once past that barrier it should be easy to identify the culprits. They’re local and county planners and elected officials who make the zoning and development decisions. They’ve put a disproportionate amount of our new urban and suburban growth in places that are accessible and functional for motorists only. 

For over half a century urban and suburban planning efforts have attempted to accommodate every auto the manufacturers can sell. And in that time we’ve never acknowledged whether the rights of those who’re forced to drive, or who are disenfranchised for lack of a car, might be more important than the property rights of the developers and land speculators. When considering our constitutional right to life, liberty and property we should remember that life comes first, liberty second, property third and cars kill. 

So let’s forget about subsidies and tax breaks to encourage transit – and pedestrian-oriented “smart growth.” Walking should be the basic transportation building block for all urban/suburban development. We’ll get all the smart growth we need if we just prohibit any development that forces us to depend on modes of transportation so dangerous that they require seat belts, air bags, crash helmets and personal liability insurance. And when the dust settles there might still be enough room so those who enjoy driving can take a circuitous five-mile route to get to the grocery store that’s just around the corner. 

Art Weber 

El Cerrito