TeaTimeTwins

That’s exactly what you are doing, and this is exactly what I’m talking about. I’m glad you managed to have twins without driving. I really am. In MY specific situation, I couldn’t, because multiple factors came together that made it impossible for me, while my babies were hospitalized and while they require specialist care. If any one of those multiple factors had been different, my experience might have been totally different. I’m a single parent of premature twins with additional medical concerns and a 5 year old. My own personal medical history made bike riding impossible for basically until now. Again, that’s only my experience, it’s not meant to be applied to anyone else. But my experience is as valid as yours or anyone else’s, and my point was simply that if we want to ditch cars, we need to meet the needs of every experience. If (and I’m in no way saying this is what you were implying) someone wanted to convince me that I should leave my babies in hospital alone or let them die just to avoid motorized transportation to extend my own life a few years, that’s just never going to be considered an acceptable trade off. Again, I’m not saying that’s what you are suggesting, but when certain legitimate reasons for using cars are dismissed or left unacknowledged, that’s what it feels like. Sure, I could have chosen to stay at my local hospital to avoid riding in an ambulance and then having to travel, but certainly both my babies would have died, and so would I in all likelihood. It’s absolutely true we need to cut as much vehicle use as possible as soon as possible, but eliminating it entirely for every situation is not going to be humane either. Solutions come from acknowledging the complexity of problems, not shaming people into trying harder.