Login Profile Get News Updates
News
Front Page
Local News
LifeStyles
Sports
Obituaries
Columns
Photo Gallery
Archive
Obit Archives
Services
Forms
Advertiser Index
Roll Call
Contact Us
About Us
Subscription Order
Advertising
Classifieds
Classified Display Ads
Shopping Page
Classified Order
Local Links
Elected Officials
City of Gaffney
Chamber of Commerce
Litter Patrol
E-mail Us
Was is appropriate for President Obama to bow to the emperor of Japan?
View results
Columns September 1, 2008  RSS feed

THEIR VIEW

We must find innovative ways to move more people

The state Department of Transportation's announcement that it is studying whether to create four stretches of interstate in the Midlands where vehicles carrying more than two people can have an uncrowded lane to themselves comes at a propitious moment.

Several developments have converged ...

We can, if we simply choose to do so, find innovative ways to move more people with less energy, develop new energy sources while tapping existing sources to greater advantage, breathe cleaner air, create more livable communities, bring more wealth to our state and stand as a shining example to the world of how to do all of the above.

We just have to decide to do it — together. That "together" part may be the biggest challenge of all, given our history. But if anything is worth setting aside the differences between state and local, local and local, town and gown, public and private, House and Senate, Democrat and Republican, this is it.

We do not know where the leadership for drafting or implementing this plan will come from, but we see several potentialities: our research universities, think tanks and coalitions such as New Carolina and the Palmetto Institute, and candidates for governor in the 2010 election.

Or maybe you, who are reading these words. Whoever gets us started, the time to start is now.

The (Columbia) State