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I feel I have as much individualism riding my bicycle to and from places as I did before my Bronco burned up in '06.
As far as the suburbs go, you just got to condition yourself to ride the distance, worked for me.
Only annoyance I have now are either inattentive drivers, or those PMS'ing about a bicycle taking up 2-3 feet of the far-right side of a three lane road!!
Where I live, having a car is much more of a hassle than a convenience, in many ways. And I like it that way.
Living in a truly walkable city is healthier, and I feel that when living in a walkable city you interact more with people and feel like you're more of a part of the community.
The strip mall-ization of America literally turns my stomach.
It's good to have a car, but it's also good to have good PT and walkable neighborhoods.
For instance, I never use my car when I go to work unless I'm late, I never use it to get to class, and I never use it when I go into NYC or Hoboken.
When I visit friends or family or have a long grocery list, a car is good to have- but I don't even need it for everyday life, my area is very accessible.
When I visit family in the burbs, I feel like it's a little nutty to have blocks and blocks of homes, but no shops/restaurants in walking distance- I'd never.
Make every road a toll road, or increase the gas tax to fully fund road construction and maintenance.
Tax gasoline enough (or increase registration fees enough) to fund the cost of cleaning the environment from the damage done by so many inefficient internal combustion engines.
Charge significantly higher premiums for health and life insurance to people who drive everywhere.
Right now, the drive everywhere lifestyle cost is hidden. Let's uncover the true cost, make the drivers pay all of it, and then, maybe others will make the choices I've made, and city planners will be pushed to design car free neighborhoods.
This is not the solution. Too many people would have no way to get to their jobs without cars, as there is no rail or public transit infrastructure to support everyone getting to where they work. Everything has been spread out so much that a vehicle is necessary to get most places. Until this is fixed, and locations of employment are put into central areas accessible by public transit, the system is broken. Once the system is fixed, then we can worry about getting people to give up their cars. As it stands, most are absolutely dependent on cars to serve everyday transportation needs.
Make every road a toll road, or increase the gas tax to fully fund road construction and maintenance.
Tax gasoline enough (or increase registration fees enough) to fund the cost of cleaning the environment from the damage done by so many inefficient internal combustion engines.
Charge significantly higher premiums for health and life insurance to people who drive everywhere.
Right now, the drive everywhere lifestyle cost is hidden. Let's uncover the true cost, make the drivers pay all of it, and then, maybe others will make the choices I've made, and city planners will be pushed to design car free neighborhoods.
Definitely one of the most ignorant posts I've ever seen on this forum. Clearly you are selfish to yourself and your provincial outlook on how the rest of the country should be
You probably do. Although if you are the type to want to visit places more than 200 miles from you it might not work as well as a car.
So I rent a car when I need it.
Saves me the heart-problems of dealing with something that will either potentially break down, or collect dust/debris/vandalized while sitting.
Other than that, I scoff at those who need a car to merely get across puny miles across town.
3-4 mile trip? Come on now!
The only other reason I use a car though is to pick up one of my many non-cycling family members and friends.
People that talk about the need for more public transportation, or who complain about the fact that people use cars must be coming from major urban areas where public transportation makes sense. Here is an example of what much of America is like- I grew up in a small town of about 1300 people in South Dakota. It was a little bedroom community with only a couple places to work, but is 10 miles from a town of 20,000, which is where most people in that town work and shop. Obviously those two towns are too small to really connect with train or even bus service- but if they did, let's say they had trains or busses that went back and forth every hour or so. How convenient would that be? If you work in the bigger town at 8:30 in the morning, why would someone wait around for the scheduled train instead of just driving 10 minutes to go on their own schedule? Or what if you realized you needed to run to the grocery store for a couple of items- it makes much more sense to just hop in the car and go than to wait an hour for the next train, get what you need, then wait for the next scheduled train back home.
With how spread out our country is, it just doesn't make sense outside of some major metro areas to implement public transportation.
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