When I lived in the Northwest I used to walk 5 miles to and from work, even in the dead of winter. My occasional hospital visits were worth it, knowing I was making a difference for my planet. I even got to know some of the homeless people and the rare instances of gun violence didn't dampen my enthusiasm for walking.

If the store or restaurant is in the area I live in I don't drive. I make everyone walk there and back. You can't always rely on your car.

The Clickbank Code

It always seems silly to me to see people in the burbs jogging or speed walking along next to a packed 6 lane boulevard wearing their fancy lycra-spandex outfits, talking on their cell phones or listening to their ipods; sunglasses, visor or sweat band on head.

They're obviously trying to get their exercise in, which is commendable, but they're not going anywhere, just doing laps.

If people would walk or ride a bike to their jobs and shopping, they wouldn't have to join a health club nor speed-walk alongside heavy traffic, breathing fumes, doing laps, looking silly.

I guess it gives car commuters something to gawk at.

Well. It don't matter what polical specrum you may adopt, what philosophical position you may espouse.

The reality is that capitalism id dead.

What can you add???

Bankrupt, paralyzed Detroit should be retooling for light-rail. As we convert interstates to bike paths, hi-ways to nature trails, and streets to paths home.

I believe the high-pitched anti-smoking campaign has been very successful in keeping our minds off the greater dangers. The reason for targeting this one product is that so few (roughly 18%) US adults smoke. It's a safe target. It's also pretty low on the list of dangers or public costs. A fraction of this 18% will develop a smoking-related disease. Smoking restrictions are so stringent that most of us have no exposure to cigaret smoke whatsoever. Contrast this with our exposure to the most carcinogenic type of smoke (i.e., the kind that contains oil particles), which comes from motor vehicles, etc. Most American adults drive, even when unnecessary, even when gas prices soar. We drive to excess, and most vehicles have only one or two occupants.

But can you imagine what would happen if the government imposed tobacco-level taxes on gas? For example, we could be issued debit cards that would enable a person to buy a rationed number of gallons of gas (based on milage between home and work) at a reasonable price, and then charge AT LEAST double for every gallon of gas purchased beyond the rationed amount.

At any rate, if every cigaret disappeared today, it would have virtually no impact on the environment and health care costs. Hint: it's not cigs that enable you to spot distant cities by the dome of yellow-gray haze on the horizon. It isn't smoking that is killing the rain forests and melting arctic ice. Isn't it time we get government to get its priorities straight?

We need bike paths, etc., but lets just consider the existing situation:

If there were a lot less congestion (fewer cars on the road at a given point in time) it would take a lot less time to get from point A to point B within a city, and therefore we could spend more time outside the car.

If we spent less time at stoplights, or waiting to get rolling when the light changes, we could spend more time moving at the speed limit and less time in the car. We would also spend less time idling the engine, wasting gas and causing pollution.

If, during each trip, we had to stop only once, and spend the rest of the time moving at the speed limit, we would get to where we wanted to go faster and spend more time outside the car. Since the "single stop" would necessarily be a bit longer, we could get out of our cars and turn off the engine, both beneficial.

All this could be accomplished by changing from a system relying on "stop lights", to one which uses "timing" instead.

From 6 AM to 6:15 AM, only traffic in the north-south direction would be allowed. From 6:15 to 6:30 only traffic in the east-west direction would be allowed. The wider streets would be converted to one-way. Etc., etc.

If you planned your trip properly, you would only have to wait a maximum of one 15 minute period. When you're stopped, you can get out of your car, make a phone call, or eat or drink something.

Much better than what we have now.

Aside from the obvious health and massive environmental impacts, the social-political engineering impacts of the car-oriented suburban model of development are huge.

There seems to vast under-appreciation of stark contrasts of political attitudes between urban and suburban dwellers. The positive correlation of progressive views with the time a person spends, or seeks-out the culture of, urban spaces is very strong.

At the Pittsburgh healthcare demo today, I was talking to a young woman who lives in the city and doesn't own a car. She was recently hired to canvass for the climate change bill. City dwellers - and suburbanites who commute by trolley or bus downtown every day were generally supportive of some kind of bill to address global warming. But once out in the SUV and 1/2 acre lot belt - whose dwellers do all their traveling by car from one suburban area to another, the hostility - often angry hostility, against the very notion of global warming was almost universal. Attitudes toward universal healthcare or other collective solutions receive considerable hostility in suburbia as well.

I think the cause is that the physical infrastructure of suburbia encourages an extreme form of economic individualism due to the way it forces individuals to spend their lives in private spaces - their houses, cars, privately-owned shopping malls, backyards. In contrast, in the city, people are frequently put in close contact with other people outside of immediate family or neighbors - on the sidewalks, bus, trolley or metro, ans in public plazas and parks. This leads, naturally to solidarity-building - a sense that "we are all in this together". In such an environment, people understand the need for collective solutions.

Several issues concerning suburbs and exurbs metastasize via demand for low $/sqft (purchaser) and relaxed zoning (developer) outside of township and city oversight.

Private companies move faster than city bureaucracies and step outside of constraints for competitive edge over competition.

The mini-mall/strip-mall as supplemental town-hub dominates the layout of developments. Epic in size. No end in sight. Pedestrian paths rare. Cities and localities are stuck funding transit and sidewalks to connect to areas outside of original city design.

Projections for 60% of society to live in large metro areas include sprawl. Small cities and also townships are gradually being swallowed by larger metros. City Councils risk being influenced by outside development plans while trying to increase revenue.

Nothing new here, but look closer:

"People who live in neighborhoods with a mix of shops and businesses within easy walking distance are 7 percent less likely to be obese."

First you need to identify what the problem really is - urban planning, huge suburbs, vast distances from home to shop to school to church/temple/mosque - that's the problem. And it was deliberately designed that way under the aegis of the auto industry.

If I hear or read one more comment about how we love our cars too much, I'm going to go postal. It took me 3.5 HOURS to get to work today - and I took the train for most of the way. On normal days, it only takes 2.25 hours - one way - now that's 4.5 hours a day I don't have with my family and spouse. AND it cost almot $15 one way.

So, you polish up your little Italian bicicletta and enjoy your Tour-de-France fantasies about the benefits of not driving - I have work to do.

I had it figured out.

I'd get a goat to pull a little 2-wheel cart. Eliminates the car, the emmissions and the petroleum. Added feature - Exxon would hate it.

Let the goat graze in the yard. Feeds the goat while he keeps the grass trimmed & fertilized. Eliminates the fertilizer, the lawnmower, the noise, the emmissions and the petroleum. There might even be some cheese in the deal. And Exxon would hate it.

Trouble is, it's against the law to keep a goat in my neighborhood or operate a goat-drawn cart on the street. To my knowledge we don't even have any bike lanes in the greater Memphis area.

Goats and bikes would make a lot of sense. But Exxon hates 'em.

Writing as a resident of the car culture capital of the world, Los Angeles, I am all too familiar with the draw backs of this clearly unsustainable way of life that is damaging to all but those whom sell the cars and related products. My sole vain hope is that the long delayed, much troubled subway / light rail under construction reaches walking of my home within 20 years.

LOL, sorry, but no shit! I think we all already knew this.