Originally Posted by
alathIN
I've just been commuting for a few weeks now. I work at two different locations and two different shifts; one shift and location is pretty bike-friendly. The other location less so.
Last week my wife's car was in the shop so I wound up commuting the whole week - spent a total of 15 min in a car Monday through Friday.
After that week, it was such a shock to get back in a car again. Red lights, traffic, lane changes, noise... the contrast was more dramatic owing to the fact that my bike commute is almost all on a greenway, so it's lots of trees and peaceful with the occasional deer, fox, or other wildlife. Not much of any of that driving a car.
This brought me to the realization that cars - particularly the reliance on cars - is a major detractor from quality of life. I was just a lot happier on my all-bike week - and will be trying to have more of them in the future.
When i was dating this professor i ended up driving a bit, mostly for errands while she was teaching (local college). I really loved riding to her place and back, even though it was over a wall of a hill in the middle of the route in both directions. She's canadian & went back home often... and for winter break, i went up to join her via the train & split the drive back (i drove farther, and was awake longer). I did not have my bike with me on that trip & when i got back home i don't think i set foot in an automobile for a good 2 weeks and boy did it feel good. That's the only real driving i've done, using her car(s). I was thinking about buying an older diesel & converting it to bio-diesel, but after driving for 9 months here and there (maybe 2x a week less than 10 minutes a trip), it just turned me off completely & i'm totally dedicated to living car free at this point.
As for police & traffic nanny...... We have the state police that do the majority of highway stops, so local PD ends up doing about 50% civil & criminal stuff and the other 50% is all traffic related. Imagine how much taxpayers would eventually save if we invested in complete streets, road upkeep (so they are fit for cycling on), driver training vs one simple road test and transit.
- Andy