i doubt he's reading this forum. if he did, he might rethink trying if he's such a girly girl, or not be such a girly girl about it, realizing it's not easy at first.
and djudd, i don't know what your role is as a journalist, but is there anything stopping you from writing an article on living car-free? you may do a hell of a lot better job than any of these people being mentioned.
a last thought on what's in this thread: am i the only one to notice a pattern? the WSJ op-ed, the other letter posted in that thread from a local paper, the 4 pieces on living car-free--NONE of them supportive? this on the tail of a hurricane that damaged gulf oil refineries, rising gas prices in the face of a shortage, etc. i myself saw a bunch of co-workers give up driving, if only for a little. how much support are these media outlets getting from car manufacturers? call me cynical, but i'm thinking they're trying to keep dollars flowing in and so are the car companies giving them money. it's part of the capitalist system. it's a system of threats--if you don't do this, we'll withdraw this thing that you need. from grocery shopping to what stories get aired and in print, this is how things are run. as i asked djudd what's stopping him from writing stuch an article, i imagine that apart from his role at paper, i also expect this to be a problem, particularly at a major paper.