I’m lucky enough to be close enough to work to walk there. My husband cycles, and we live in a moderate enough climate that he can do it all year round (Vancouver Island).

We almost never take the bus anywhere. It’s stupid expensive. For example, say I wanna go downtown. That’s a 30km drive. At about 10L/100km, that’s 3L of gas each way. Gas costs $1.35/L, so that’s about $8.10. It costs $2.25 each way for the bus. That’s $4.50 each, and there are 4 of us, though I usually get the little one on free on those odd occasions. So let’s say 3 of us. That’s $13.50. To take the bus costs $5.40 more than taking the car. Ludicrous.

I cannot afford a new car, let alone a Prius, so when we drive, it’s our 1991 Oldsmobile 88. A smaller car is pretty much out of the question because of kids and dog and cross-country trips to visit family.

What worries me most is the cost of food. It’s going to fucking skyrocket. Considering I can’t eat most of the grains grown here, I have to rely on rice and tapioca. That’s really going to be a BIG problem for me.

I meant of course, vehicles don’t squash cyclists, drivers do. My experience as a bicycle messenger …

Dude, we are so bonding. When and where? Me, DC 1985, the fun reagan years!
Those were the days, eh, back before front shocks and mandatory helmets?
Ever kicked the door of a Lincoln, left a dent and sped away?

Arlington is uber-walkable …

heh, you had me believing until that last part.

henry lewis,
I’m new enough that I haven’t seen that before, it looks pretty cool. One question though, what of accessability issues such as the morbidly obese or chronic fatigue syndrome sufferers? People who with slightly limited mobility that can travel by car, but not by bike.

This is why all american high school students should be required, by law, to go to some other country and see how people live without automobile dependence.

Oh no! Who will lecture us on the eternal wisdom of Salma Hayek and on the folly of ridiculing John Stossel?

What, are you insane? Go on all you want about John Stossel, whoeverthefuckthatis, but don’t be dissin’ Selma.
Trust me on this, pal, people here are begging for my protection. You might want to listen to them.

When I want your opinion, shithead, I’ll beat it out of you.

Oh sweet jeebus, that would be so awesome. Will there be furry polar bear suits and handcuffs?
Can we parade around in front of the WhiteHouse , all irrelevent, like Ralph Nader?
Oh, oh, I just soiled my pants.
Jennifer, you rock.

Look, kids, I can’t really help you if you won’t help yourselves..

Not to offend any Explorer drivers who might be reading this.

I depend on my 1988 Honda Civic (aka The Easy Bake Oven, since I was dim-witted and opted for no air-conditioning) because I need to make lots of local trips to the houses where I work. I am strong, and when the Civic’s been in the shop, I have walked (one memorable hour-and-a-half jog/hike through the beautiful watershed/open space district land so I could get to an $18 dog walk), but the area is hilly, and getting hither and thither takes time, and time is money, and if you wanna eat you gotta work.

But I already give rides to other household workers when I see them headed for the lovely estates that are way way up there along the ridges and hills. We’re going to have to start doing that for each other more and more.

And yes, I am considering a bike, but they cost money and I’m scared of getting squashed by an errant Range Rover.

Except when my coding job project schedule demands I spend ungodly hours at work (a couple times a year)…then I drive a lot.

And having just been in NYC for a week, anybody who’d ride in that traffic gets a deep bow (or perhaps curtsy) from me.

Also, it’s going to mean re-training the PHB Management Class, because when all the office drones are locked into an actual commuting *schedule*, getting extra PHB manhood points by demanding said drones do that “one more (pointless) thing” before they bolt for the last train is going to be waaaay anti-social.

Yes, in an ideal world “we” wouldn’t have built all these private houses sprawled over many acres and linked only by asphalt, but then in an ideal world the concept Peak Oil would never emerge either. In this world, it’s going to be make-and-patch, link-and-pray, best-we-can-do-before-Thursday… which is not really so different from most human lives, for most of human history. Our proud common traditions are mostly about getting enough food, shelter, and maybe a little entertainment to get us through this sunup-to-sundown cycle; only the details change.

http://www.evalbum.com/

I read a similar article in Wired the other day about that too!

http://blog.wired.com/cars/2008/05/the-ultimate-pr.html

Really though…my initial reason when I started working in DC for taking Metro was that I prefer people traffic to car traffic. And those red light cameras in DC are like 3 bitches in a bitch boat…

Arlington is uber-walkable so the only reason I drive is to visit family that are out of the area or the occasional trip to a store to pick something up that I can’t carry on foot or my bike.

I prolly forgot to mention that my work pays for the majority of my metro fare anyways – heh you hate me now.

I’m feeling the crunch mostly with the food and electric bills…i’m def prepping to switch to the ramen diet ugh and here I thought I was past that and won’t be enjoying the A/C that much this summer.

btw, anyone know how many McCain points I need to buy a tank of gas?