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Re:A Swiss Town Banned Billboards. Zurich, Bern May Soon Follow by stetrain on Friday July 26, 2024 @01:27PM (#41080461)
Not through direct usage tax, but probably through local taxes. And cycling and pedestrian infrastructure generally costs less per person-mile of capacity than car infrastructure.

Those streets and sidewalks were created through public action, the public decided or elected people who decided that that was a good allocation of resources.

Just like we decide that parking in some places is a good allocation of resources.

Changing our minds on which thing to allocate resources to isn't an affront to our freedoms, when done in a way that is democratic or representative.

The town deciding to build a park on some land instead of selling it to a developer to build a mall isn't an oppression of the mall builder's freedoms. It's just a choice.

Personally I find having choices in how to move around is an increase in personal freedom. Needing to own, insure, maintain, and fuel a car to participate in a community is a financial burden, and a burden on those who have to deal with cars and traffic while trying to do things like walk across a giant parking lot to get between two locations that should be reasonable to walk between.

Casting all decisions that do anything to take away public infrastructure for cars as a reduction in freedom is ridiculous.

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