Reply #10: No [View All]

[ramapo]

Some car trips border on the absurd. For instance, driving five-to-ten miles one-way to visit a diner or certain fast food establishment. We can get bad food within a one-mile radiius of the house but sometimes you just have to go somewhere else for your bad food.

Our town is decidedly pedestrian and bicycle unfriendly, yet it is possible to park your car and walk a block or two to complete a couple of errands. I do so routinely but few others do likewise. Most get in their car to drive across the street.

Parents drive their kids down the street to their friend's house. Walk to school? No way. There is a groundless fear of predators and the like.

How about this summer's concerts for global warming. The vast majority will drive their SUV to attend.

I was in Manhattan yesterday. You can find no more absurd a place for the automobile yet I confess to having driven there. Despite the obvious inefficiency, the standstill traffic belching pollutants into the air, the alternative mass transit is a slow and often painful method of transportation, especially off-peak. Yes I could've driven to the train but my trip time would have been probably three times as long.

The easy reliance on the automobile has become deeply ingrained in the population. I have no doubt that this must change but have no idea how or when this might occur.