Arkansas Using This Extreme Radical

HARRISON, Ark. (AP) — It looks like any other road-improvement project: orange barrels, repaving equipment and men in fluorescent vests. But a closer look reveals something curious. Instead of making the street wider to accommodate more cars, the crew reduces it from four lanes to two in a project called a "road diet." The goal is to rein in aggressive drivers and make shopping areas friendlier to pedestrians.

The idea seems counterintuitive for traffic-choked towns, but it's catching on. In Harrison, a small city in northwest Arkansas, officials also hope it drums up more business along Main Street. Mayor Jeff Crockett wants drivers "to slow down, stop, shop, take your time getting through."

Still, Dan Burden, who pushes road diets and other transportation ideas to make communities more walkable, says the road diet fits nicely with Harrison's goal of gleaning more revenue from its businesses.

But business owners such as Ernest Raney, who runs a pawn shop with his wife along Main Street, question whether it will achieve anything for businesses. "They call it a road diet, which means they're going to cut back on traffic," Raney said. "But I can't imagine any businessman wanting less traffic in front of his business."

Harrison completed its road diet only a few weeks ago, so it's too soon to know whether the new system will pay off.

So what is the real goal?

Eliminating as much transportation by cars (for global warming purposes) as possible is a goal of the U.N. Sustainable Development. Our Metropolitan Transportation Plans (MPO's) across the state are filled with quotes like. “Work towards...increasing trips by bicycle and foot by a certain percentage over 2010 levels.”

At the first MPO meeting I attended, the speakers kept talking about bikeways and walkways, so I asked: “Are the bike trails for the purpose of recreation or for actual transportation to reduce the number of cars on the road?” Mr. Muhammad Ulkarim (Director of MPO) answered: “The bike trails are mostly recreational now, but in the near future they will be for transportation and to reduce the number of cars on the road.” After a couple more questions, we asked, “So do you envision a future where our children and grandchildren will be riding bicycles rather than driving cars?” The answer: “It won’t be just our kids and grandchildren, it will be you and me — us,” indicating it would be coming very soon. (Most of the people there were over 50 and probably over 60.)

There is no way Americans are going to depend on walking and biking and mass transit unless the government forces it on them through high gas prices, expensive cars, regulations, etc. There are all kinds of energy that could be tapped in our own country including drilling in Alaska, offshore and other places. Therefore, the government is imposing extreme unnecessary hardships on its citizens, and the MPO is knowingly or unknowingly cooperating with the federal government in its endeavors.

All this money is being wasted on bikeways, walkways, mass transit, light rail, etc., just like our president has wasted it on Solyndra and other solar plants for global warming purposes. According to Fox, President Obama has included a $53 billion investment in national high-speed intercity passenger rail network in this year’s budget and is pushing ahead with his plan to give 80 percent of Americans access to high-speed rail within 25 years. Amtrak has lost $13 billion in the last 10 years. [This 80% figure is confirmed on this White House website link]

Wake up folks! - Unless you want to move into a high density area so you can walk to work, or ride your bike. They are much farther along on this plan than you realize - note that Obama has already mandated bikeways to be part of all government funded transportation. See this link for more information on that: http://www.wpaag.org/Sus%20Dev%20-%20Let%20to%20ed%20-%20Obama%20mandates%20bikeways.htm Our Jonesboro MPO Director gave us a list of about 40 national organizations pushing this movement. Our MPO Director, Muhammad Ulkarim, had the gall to say in an email: "The primary purpose of creating the MPOs was to empower local communities by moving decision-making from Washington, D.C. and state capitals to local communities."

North Little Rock Mayor, Patrick Henry Hays, is the former US President of The International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) - one of the most radical organizations pushing all of Dan Burden's radical agenda. That is probably how Dan Burden wound up working in Arkansas. ICLEI is involved in the following according to the American Policy Center: it restricts energy and land use, private property rights, water use, even building materials. It also includes cap and-trade, global warming, population and gun control, open borders and illegal immigration, higher gas and other taxes, no oil drilling, education restructuring, international IDs, health, food and farm control, and wealth redistribution.