yep. america's unrelenting love affair with the car has left us with some of the bleakest, most disjointed built environments on the planet.

these kinds of distinctions probably go unnoticed by the masses who drive around all day from one parking lot to the next, but it's something i've always been sensitive to, and has always driven my decisions on where to live.

i was living car-free in the city for 7 year before i even re-discovered bike commuting/transportation cycling. so, this whole biking thing was more of a "oh, i suppose i can do that too" realization than anything i specifically organized my life around. and were i still a bachelor and living where i do now, i'd absolutely still be car-free, but cars do make kids profoundly easier at times.