sbhikes

I drove today for two hours. I hardly ever do it anymore. I was shocked about how much road kill there was. Racoons, skunks, sea gulls, house cats, all kinds of things. It is very sad.

I'm glad to use transportation that doesn't kill quite so many things. If you add in the price we pay in human lives for all that oil, it's obscene how much our car culture kills.

xyz

Not just cars, those cell phone towers are killing large numbers of birds on the coasts.

gcasillo

How do cell towers kill large numbers of birds?

xyz

Fog along the coast reduces visibility. A large flock of birds fly thru and *smacksmacksmacksmack*.

Chris L

Not to mention loss of habitat to make space of the damn things.

I have a simple answer to the "driving sux" dilemma. I don't drive point blank.

John Ridley

I drove yesterday, because the remnants of a cold I've been fighting was starting to catch up to me and my leg muscles were feeling weak.

I find I don't mind driving so much, it's just that every minute I'm doing it, I'm wishing I was cycling instead. It really mainly bothers me when I'm driving to/from work on the same route I normally cycle.

Tons of birds are killed flying into highrise buildings with the lights left on for no reason, too. Light pollution is really messing things up on the coast, for many species, who get confused by the lights. Shame, really, since most of it's due to crappy lighting that wastes most of the energy put into it.

funbun

I had no idea birds were being killed. but If we didn't have an automobile infostricture then we wouldn't have nice roads to ride on.

oaxacarider

maybe we all should be living in caves and make our own bikes out of sticks, or not? we wouldn't want to kill any trees would we?

H23

Driving does, in fact, suck.

In all major Northeast cities, driving is a miserable and stressful activity.

When I was kid and my parents got their first car, we would all pile in the car on Saturday mornings and go driving. It was fun. Today a similar trip would be a nightmare of heavy traffic and aggressive drivers.

funbun

Yeah, driving used to be fun in my small hometown of Selma Alabama. I live in T-Twon now. It isn't as crowded as New York but it is crowded enough to take the fun out of driving.

If held drivers to the same level as pilots there would be fewer, better trained drivers on the roadways.

Makoa

I hit and killed a squirrel on my way to work yesterday -- on my bike! But I do agree, driving is not fun. I try to run or ride to work 4 out of 5 working days. I dread the days I drive.

Dahon.Steve

I live in the north east and driving wasn't fun when I was a kid in the late 70's!!!! I remember being in the back seat of a station wagon stuck in traffic for hours trying to reach the Jersey shore. It was so horrible to be stuck in traffic for five hours straight that I stopped going with my dad after a while.

I discovered this summer we have trains that actually take you to the Jersey Shore coast. It was incredible how comfortable and relaxing it was to ride in an airconditioned train while traveling at 50 mph. You would figure it would take us much longer since a motor car can reach speeds in excess of 50mph. I was dead wrong. We reached the shore in an hour and a half! Incredible. Furthermore, I could not believe how few people there were on the train as I estimated it was less than half full.

rog

My day job is driving a tractor trailer, and here in Jersey, the amount of roadkill I see, especially deer, has at least doubled over the last ten years...animals being forced out of their natural habitat by human pop. growth... I saw some developer, a year ago, who wanted to build townhouses right next to North Jerseys water supply said that with all the people who want to move to this state, they have to be able to buy a place somewhere. I was like, really? Why can't they just realize this place is saturated, and do what everyone else does - either go farther south, or west into Pennsylvania?

sbhikes

Here's a bike made of lumber.
https://www.manytracks.com/Recumbent/EricK.htm

Phiber

I didn't realise there were lives being lost for oil. I say poke holes in Alaska like we should have all along and chain those tree huggers to the trees. o_o Oh wait, they've already chained themselves there.

Allister

Speaking of roadkill...