Cleaner Air? Reader Suggests A Better Spokane Bus System

She doesn’t walk to work, but Carol Conzelman of Spokane may feel like it after her daily bus ride.

“I currently walk over a mile to catch a bus,” she said, “and I feel like if the bus system here was better, we would use it more.”

She is one of the readers who responded to last week’s question about improving Spokane’s notorious air quality.

“A lot of people don’t ride the buses because they work single-shift jobs, they don’t work with other people or they have to work so early the buses don’t run,” Conzelman said. “Both my husband and I are in this situation.”

The question in “Bagpipes” was merely rhetorical, said Gerald Schuldt of Spokane.

“Blah, blah, blah - just do it!” he said.

“What percentage of your editorial staff uses ‘alternative transportation,’ or AT? Or what percentage of our local government employees use AT?

“Our society has embraced the auto and urban sprawl. Is there any surprise that your paper found 1 percent of our community bicycling as AT? Just do it!

“There is no magic pill this society is willing to swallow,” said Schuldt.

On the other hand, he said, more than half of Holland’s population uses alternative transportation.

“If we want clean air, we have to do it!”

You can’t fool Mother Nature

Catching up on an earlier topic, Evelyn Graebner of Spokane wonders why Spokane County is trying to devise plans for addressing storm water problems.

“They’re going to cost a fortune to implement,” she said. “Why on earth they’re messing with Mother Nature anyway. After all, we know there are going to be storms and high water at different times, but we think it’s ridiculous that they can spend all that money trying to do the things they’re planning on doing to prevent things or control things.

“You can’t control Mother Nature. There are no two ways about it.”

Freedom is as freedom does

As far as dealing with the freemen in Montana, Jim Nelson of Spokane sees it this way:

“The way I look at it, they’re already in prison. What I would do is just station a few men there, control the road access in and out and not allow any more food supplies in. They can come out when they want to come out, and maybe when they get hungry, they’ll come to their senses, but it’s a foregone conclusion that that’s not going to happen.”

, DataTimes MEMO: “Bagpipes” appears Tuesdays and Thursdays. To respond, call Cityline at 458-8800, category 9881, from a Touch-Tone phone or send a fax to 459-5098 or e-mail to dougf@spokesman.com. You also can leave Doug Floyd a message at 459-5577, extension 5466.