We will never get out of the transportation mess we are in until we have a radical change in our thinking about the subject of transportation.
An important part of that change is to realize that it is a fundamental mistake to suppose that there is a "parking shortage" in Chapel Hill or on campus.
The Daily Tar Heel repeatedly makes this mistake, as in the Aug. 23 editorial, which said that "on-campus parking is scarce."
Town Manager Cal Horton is quite right to say that there is no need for new public parking downtown (Aug. 28 DTH).
It shows that an enlightened approach for him to say so. He should be strongly commended for his intelligence and foresight.
There is no parking shortage. There is an overabundance of automobiles. There is a shortage of other transportation options, such as transit and biking.
While Chapel Hill has an excellent bus system by comparison to others in the state, we really need to have transit services around the clock every day of the year.
We need new bike routes. We need to provide people with transportation, not parking spaces.
Obviously, there is a gap between the amount of available parking and the amount of it some people would like to have.
