Darienite (https://darienite.com/category/opinion)
Why is there so much scorn for those who ride the bus? Forty-one million trips are taken on 12,000 public buses each year in Connecticut in communities across the state (not counting school buses). Yet, those riders are regarded as losers, not by the transit operators, but by those who drive by car. (more…) Continue Reading →
What is this fascination people have with monorails? I can’t tell you how often people suggest them as “the answer” to our state’s clogged roads and rails. “Why don’t we build a monorail down the middle of The Merritt Parkway?” asked an architect at a recent meeting. To my astonishment, such an idea was once studied. (more…) Continue Reading →
What is the difference between rules and expectations? And how do I enforce them? Adolescence is a time of self-exploration. It’s the time when kids are beginning to individuate and separate from their parents and decide what values are their own. (more…) Continue Reading →
A good boss cares about his customers. He wants to keep them happy and actively seeks out their feedback. Such is not the case at the Connecticut Department of Transportation. (more…) Continue Reading →
Public transportation is a money-losing proposition. But Connecticut is home to one of the few profitable transit companies in the U.S. It’s not CT Transit or Metro-North, both of which are heavily subsidized. No, the operation that’s squarely in the black is the Bridgeport–Port Jefferson Steamboat Company, a.k.a. “the ferry.” (more…) Continue Reading →
While the bill approving the sale of recreational marijuana still has a way to go before being adopted, we should realize that, at some point in the not-too-distant future, recreational marijuana could very likely be available in Connecticut. (more…) Continue Reading →
As I hope you can tell, I love writing this column. As New York Times columnist Tom Friedman once said, a commentator should be in the heating business and the lighting business — getting people fired up while providing factual support for his arguments. (more…) Continue Reading →
Gov. Ned Lamont’s tolling plan is in trouble. I knew it when I recently got a call from Dan Malloy. (more…) Continue Reading →
How can you get people to commute by train if they can’t get to the train station? Those two-wheeled, buff millennials would have us believe we should all bike our way from home to the train. But not all of us are that athletic or inclined to take our lives in our hands wheeling through traffic and bad weather. (more…) Continue Reading →
In the third year of the Community Fund of Darien’s “Our Darien” campaign against underage drinking and binge drinking in town, the organization has released this op-ed article, particularly for parents, describing the problem in town. (more…) Continue Reading →
When are we finally going to do something about our transportation crisis? That question has been asked for decades, but never answered, or more importantly, acted upon. (more…) Continue Reading →
I like to go fast. Really fast. Nothing makes me happier than hurtling along to Boston on Acela at 145 mph, even if those sprints are brief, or catching the jet-stream on a flight and hitting 600 mph. And nothing frustrates me more, like you, than being in slow-moving, bumper-to-bumper traffic on Interstate 95, that highway’s normative state. (more…) Continue Reading →
Will Haskell is 22 years old, and he’s about two months into his first full-time paying job as a state senator representing the 26th District that covers most of interior Fairfield County. (more…) Continue Reading →
“You know how much money I make driving this cab?” the thickly accented New York cabbie asked me as we careened down Lexington Avenue. (more…) Continue Reading →
Would you like a faster ride on Metro-North? Who wouldn’t? (more…) Continue Reading →