Unspoken vulnerability

Lisa Margonelli writes in The Atlantic:

Consider the city of Atlanta, where the average commute length is 39.4 miles each way. I’ve mentioned before that the Department of Commerce estimates that a household making $50,000 a year spends more on their cars and fuel ($7,900) than on health care or taxes, but those numbers are low.

Extrapolating out from the government estimates, I’d guess that an average Atlanta commuter, driving an average car (17.4 MPG) is spending an extra $35 a week on their commute today (over the government average) and at $3.75 a gallon they’ll need an extra $55 a week. …

People will have to search for alternative transit, which is rarely available. If they can’t find a carpool, they’ll eventually have to figure out if they can continue to afford to get to their jobs, or if they can move or get a new car.

The last two years have seen a tremendous hullabaloo about creating “green jobs;” we need to take the step of making every job greener by giving workers more ways to get to work than burning expensive gasoline. 

Same for the commuter in Langley.  And so far, not a word from any of the Liberal candidates who come from ridings that will be severely affected (like George Abbott, who is obliquely trying to kill off the carbon tax, rather than redirect the revenues to transit.)

Do they not want to talk about this – or don’t know how to?