Got a neighbor with a car to pick it up, actually :P
But there's the thing. People did live before cars, and people will live long after cars, unless the apocalypse kills us all. Surely they managed somehow.
Why *not* have more carshares and cabs and rentals and less dependency on the car for *everything*? Why *not* have more people riding bikes with trailers that lug up to 300 pounds? Or that can carry your youngest children? Why *not* improve transportation so that people who cannot afford cars, or who, for whatever reason, are not capable of *driving* cars can get around - and, so that those people who *can* drive can have the option *not* to if they wish?
(Also, marveen, I was walking a week's worth of groceries home from the supermarket since I was 12. Alone. And that included a week's worth of canned pet food for a dog and several cats. Most of the time, I didn't even have a cart because the sidewalks are too hilly to be worth the effort. Sure, we're not that far from the supermarket, but I'll say that the sheer hilliness of the trip doubles the distance because it's just that annoying (and anyway, I've walked the much further route from the Pathmark, which is 2.88 miles (in the snow! uphill! both ways! not one of my smarter days to go shopping waaaaaay out there, I'll admit), again with a week's groceries). It's not that formidable, and I'm sure it'd be less so with a bike instead of walking.)
You can sit around and say "it's not possible, it's not possible, it's not possible", or you can sit around and try to find ways to make it possible, or at least easier. (Sooner or later somebody's gonna have to anyway. Those fossil fuels are sure not gonna last forever. Don't know when they'll run out, but they can't possibly last forever. They're not a renewable resource - or at least, not in any sort of time span *I* wish to consider.)
Besides, most people in the US don't live rurally. I don't wish to ignore those who do, but when 81% of the country lives in cities and suburbs (which could easily have been designed to be more walkable and less car-requiring), as I do, I'm going to spend at least 81% of my civic-thinking time thinking about people in urban areas. More, because I myself live in a city!
no subject
But there's the thing. People did live before cars, and people will live long after cars, unless the apocalypse kills us all. Surely they managed somehow.
Why *not* have more carshares and cabs and rentals and less dependency on the car for *everything*? Why *not* have more people riding bikes with trailers that lug up to 300 pounds? Or that can carry your youngest children? Why *not* improve transportation so that people who cannot afford cars, or who, for whatever reason, are not capable of *driving* cars can get around - and, so that those people who *can* drive can have the option *not* to if they wish?
(Also,
You can sit around and say "it's not possible, it's not possible, it's not possible", or you can sit around and try to find ways to make it possible, or at least easier. (Sooner or later somebody's gonna have to anyway. Those fossil fuels are sure not gonna last forever. Don't know when they'll run out, but they can't possibly last forever. They're not a renewable resource - or at least, not in any sort of time span *I* wish to consider.)
Besides, most people in the US don't live rurally. I don't wish to ignore those who do, but when 81% of the country lives in cities and suburbs (which could easily have been designed to be more walkable and less car-requiring), as I do, I'm going to spend at least 81% of my civic-thinking time thinking about people in urban areas. More, because I myself live in a city!