🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <D2150035.5a8jqi@outpost.SF-Bay.org>, peirce@outpost.SF-Bay.org (Michael Peirce) writes:
|> 
|> In article <1992Jun5.170717.15144@adobe.com> (ca.environment,ba.transportation), jciccare@adobe.com (John Ciccarelli) writes:
|> > Michael Pierce writes:
|> 
|> Great.  But in my original comment I wasn't talking about middle school
|> aged kids.  They aren't "small children" they are (mostly) responsible
|> for their own transport either by foot or by bike.  My step daughter
|> bikes or walks to middle school most days.  Schools are mostly nearby
|> and walking work great when its only a few blocks.
|> 
|> But my step son doesn't.  He's too young (and disabled too, but that's
|> a different argument) and we drive him to his day care each day. 
|> It's a number of miles away and somehow I just can't imagine taking
|> three buses each way with him or biking with him in a trailer.

Michael's post brings up, obliquely, a very important issue in this 
ongoing debate.  I'm going to use his case as an example, not to pick
on him or because I think he's necessarily doing anything wrong, but
because the example is real and readily available.

It's not hard to believe that many people find themselves in situations
where driving is the easiest (and in some cases only) way to do the
things they need to do on a daily basis. 

As I see it, though, a large part of this is related to the way in 
which people choose where they live.  Typical priorities in choosing
where to live within a metropolitan area include housing cost, local 
schools, quality of neighborhood, and proximity to work, shopping, parks,
etc.  These are all important criteria, although the weight given to
each will necessarily differ from person to person.  

But after people make a decision based on these criteria, they say, "I'd
like to be able to get to work by bus/train/bicycle/whatever, but I live
too far away/the bus doesn't go there/etc."  Or "My daily routine requires 
me to travel miles out of the way, so I have to drive."

If one doesn't consider the possibility of using alternate transportation 
until all other decisions are made, it shouldn't come as a surprise that 
it's likely to be difficult to fit it in, given our current infrastructure.
But I submit that if priorities were rearranged so that alternative
transportation was given more weight earlier in the process, people would 
find it easier to travel by bus/train/bicycle/foot.

Carl

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Carl Gooch                       |        Why am I inside at a keyboard when 
gooch@leland.stanford.edu        |        I could be outside riding bike?
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