For the record, I’m not a smoker. I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, and I really find smoking quite distasteful. But Raleigh city council is getting completely out of control. They’re now talking about a ban on smoking at bus stops. That’s right, bus stops, that are OUTSIDE. For now, it’s just the larger ones, but they’ve considered extending it to all of them, including stops that are really just a sign and a bench. For now, it’s large stops, and they’ll set up a separate smoking area that’s more that 25 feet from where people board the bus. Which should work well, because it’s not like people need to be close to the bus they’re about to board or anything.
More troubling than the logistics is the principle. We’re talking about rules that dictate which bit of the sidewalk is ok for smoking and which isn’t. Do we really want the city getting so involved in the minutiae of our everyday lives? I know I don’t. Seriously, Raleigh, we can figure this one out on our own. We non-smokers can handle moving upwind of the smokers. We’ll be just fine without your bus stop smoking ban. Thanks, but no thanks.
