Comments on: Choices: Drive? or Bike?

By: anne

anne — Tue, 27 Nov 2007 23:24:21 +0000

if anyone here is a fan of Randy Cohen’s column The Ethicist in the NY Times magazine, here is an interview with him on the ethics of urban transportation:

http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/transportation-ethics/

here’s a taste:
“Ethics primarily concerns itself with the effect of our actions on other people. Especially when you live close together in a city it’s very easy for one person’s actions to have a profound effect on another… and it seemed to me that what was significantly undermining the ordinary daily happiness and health and economic life of both me and my fellow New Yorkers was the private car.”

By: N3T1O

N3T1O — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:47:00 +0000

i always like 2 drive, but lately i prefer 2 riding a bike instead of drive a f!@# car

By: Brent P. Newhall

Brent P. Newhall — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 22:11:25 +0000

I actually prefer to walk rather than bike or use the car. My closest grocery store is about a fifteen-minute brisk walk, which is reasonable. I have an easier time handling groceries when walking than biking. And a bike is just one more thing to store, maintain, fix, etc.

By: Vijay

Vijay — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 05:55:10 +0000

I think I will bike…

When people in Tokyo can do it (The Average person travels a great deal there), I think it’s possible to do the same world over. One thing that can help is a proper public transportation system, especially in more developed and emerging nations.

By: Brian

Brian — Fri, 23 Nov 2007 04:24:57 +0000

Bus. It’s running anyway, right?

By: Jim

Jim — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 21:35:24 +0000

Continuing to rely on the car shows a lack of imagination. Just imagine how fantastic a city would be to live in without cars and with efficient public transport. And thats without getting into the benefits to the planet and your health. I believe there will come a time when it will be socially unacceptable to drive short distances. Its already becoming unaceptable to drive huge 4×4 here in Glasgow.

As this article points ot the effect of a large scale switch to bikes has some many advantages. I used to work about 7 miles from the house and it took me sometimes 45 mins to get through the traffic. On the bike I could do it in 25 max. And arrived ready for the day. And the savings in diesel and running costs for the car was huge.

I used to love cars and owned a serties of Mercs, Saabs etc but it was when I test drove a Landrover Disco for a week I suddenly discovered how fuel inefficient these cars are - I was shocked. In one journey between Manchester and Glasgow and back cost me £70 worth of diesel. Thats only 400 miles of motorway driving. Goddknos how many tons of carbon I releases that day.

Then I read a couple of books - How to Save the Planet by Mayer Hillman and Heat by George Monbiot. They changed my whole outlook on things. I even used to commute to London every week and I haven’t flown in 3 years. I just can’t believe people van be so arrogant as to dismiss glabl warming as a hoax. These people are in denial. Are they really willing to take the risk with the future of the planet.

There is a solution out there and its called carbon rationing - responsible use of energy - its the future

By: Sarah

Sarah — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 15:48:32 +0000

I haven’t owned a car for years, and bike everywhere that I can. As a solution to grocery shopping, my husband and I have acquired a gardening wagon, that we can pull to our local grocery store (2 miles round trip) and that way we can bulk up and bring home heavy items.

By: Our Tough Nature » Choices: Drive? or Bike?

Our Tough Nature » Choices: Drive? or Bike? — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 14:16:25 +0000

[…] read more | digg story […]

By: Ted

Ted — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 14:53:52 +0000

I ride my bike to work most days, 10 miles each way, takes me 45 min
If the weather is bad then I take the bus, MBTA in Boston area now
has bike racks on the front of almost all busses. My bike goes right
on the front of the bus and I bicycle the last mile to work. My
commute to work is out the Minuteman path to the Narrow Gauge Rail Trail.

By: Tim

Tim — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 02:25:14 +0000

I did a bike/Bart commute when I lived in the Bay Area, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’ve chosen my jobs based on short commute distance and/or public transit accessibility for 15 years now, though I’m lucky to be in technology and for the past 15 years there has been good demand for people in my field…but even if it’s harder to choose your job’s location, you can always try to live closer to where you end up working.

At this point I live in Colorado, but I’m still working for a company in San Francisco–I just work from home most days, but I have to fly to SF once a month. At least I manage to take the bus to the airport–and I recently learned how cool it is to be able to bike to a mountain, work my way up to a 6000′ ridge, and still make it home during a (long) lunch hour.

Boulder was rated the “Most Bikeable City in the US” by one survey, and has excellent public transit (that’s free if you can get an EcoPass), so I do end up biking and taking the bus a lot. But we haven’t gotten rid of our second car–I just don’t use it more than once a week or so.