Quality of life is feeling good about yourself and eating well. Exercise in general makes this happen. I can spend 40 minutes a day driving to and from work and another 30 minutes at the gym working out or I can just ride my bike to and from work. No real time lost for me and I could eat all the ice cream I want more or less.

In Portland cycling has become a true way of life. Knowing people that live car is common. Its not that Portland is a small town but it does help to have smaller stores that repeat services ever few miles.
Its a thing of beauty to stand on a corner and watch 100s of bikes pass you.

And therein lies the problem as long as mass transit sucks people will continue to take their cars because it "appears" more convenient. You can be mobile in a mass transit environment, it is done all the time in other countries. The last time I checked the constitution didn't guarantee us low cost, subsidized automobile transportation. Some...make that many of us would like to see more subsidies for alternative forms of transit.



I have no clue, and is it really necessary in the US? FWIW my jobsite is 200+ miles from my home (the jobsites move around) For the past year I have been using Amtrak to go back and forth, in the past 6 months I have saved myself over 6,000 miles of driving.



Again, people make choices and have to live with those choices for the most part, having to live in a certain neighborhood, etc, etc. If the infrastructure existed and cars were taxed the way they are in Europe people might make other choices. I live over 40 miles from my current office. I didn't make that choice, the company I worked for went bankrupt and this is where the office is of the company that purchased mine. I had the option of going somewhere else, but chose to accept it instead. I also only go to the office once a month so I have a choice. I realize that not everyone has choices. But that is something that the government and the businesses should be working on.

Aaron

While the above is true, the fact is that MOST people do not live such senseless distances away from their work... according to transportation studies most folks live within 12 miles or less from their place of work and most errands are 2 miles or less from home... so why is it that MOST people who could probably bike, drive instead? Could it be that the structures they drive upon tend to discourage cycling rather than encourage it? Just look at the simple problem of being refused service at a "drive thru" window.