HOYA SWALLOWS PENTAX !

Rebecca Ore wrote:
In article ,
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

Seriously, I don't understand why more people don't decide not to own cars.
The (quite rational*) decision not to own a car ought to be a possibility,
right?

I live in Philadelphia for that reason -- public transportation. But I
may end up leaving Philadelphia for a better job. The only places where
Americans can afford not to have cars are small towns with viable
downtowns and a handful of cities which have good enough public
transportation. Some employers (Comcast in Philadelphia for one) have
moved back into the cities (over a transportation interchange in
Comcast's case); a lot are still out where the trans doesn't reach.

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.

It is freedom-centric. Most US residents just want to go where they
want to go, WHEN they want to go and don't want to wait on a bus, cab,
or subway. I find the whole idea of using public transportation VERY
restrictive, and confining.

William Graham wrote:
"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:57:15 GMT, Rebecca Ore
wrote:

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.
Yeah. It's going to come as an even bigger shock to you guys. But
you'll cope, as we all will have to.

Yes.....I don't see any real problems, myself......Getting rid of the
gas-guzzlers might be a traumatic experience for some, but I'm sure there
will be a number of other alternatives on the horizon. I see us as being
individually transportation orientated, but not necessarily gasoline
dependent as others seem to see us. When the gas runs out, we will just take
to electric vehicles or whatever we have to do. But crowding together into
busses or trains just isn't in the cards, and I just don't see that it
should have to be. We don't think that way, and our life style isn't
designed around that sort of thing. IOW, whatever they come up with, you can
be sure of one thing.....One person will be able to leave his house in it,
and drive it to wherever he wants to go without having to be dependent on
anyone else in order to go there. Whether it burns alcohol, or peanut
shells, or runs through storage batteries, or picks up energy from the road
or whatever, it will be a one man, one destination at a time vehicle.....Of
that, you can be sure.......


I agree, but it is a lot more fun if two can go together... Grin.
Technology WILL come through when the motivation reaches the necessary
level.

Rebecca Ore wrote:
In article ,
Laurence Payne lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote:

On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:57:15 GMT, Rebecca Ore
wrote:

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.
Yeah. It's going to come as an even bigger shock to you guys. But
you'll cope, as we all will have to.

I'm moving to England if I can. Otherwise, I'm staying in Philadelphia,
a wonderful place separated from Pittsburgh by Northern Alabama.

I visited Philly, once. Got out of town as fast as my rented car would
carry me, then avoided the city when I returned to the airport. How CAN
you stand the smell?

Pudentame wrote:
Philip Homburg wrote:
In article ,
Pudentame wrote:
I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles
away, slightly more than an hour walking.
The nearest grocery store is halfway to where I work.

Ah, so all you need is a bicycle. :-)



Yeah, so the limited number of busses there are in this town could run
over me.
Yeah, and bicycles are SO much fun when the temperature is -3F and the
wind is blowing 30mph. Toss in a little snow, and it's REALLY a ball.

"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...

They do, to an extent. Crumple zones.

No one invented crumple zones, they just started saving as
much car as they could without having it collapse in on itself. Using no
frame at all was a master stroke. These things are so weak they created the
need for flat beds for towing. Try to jack one up and then close the doors.
Bob Hickey

"Ron Hunter" wrote in message
...
William Graham wrote:
"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:57:15 GMT, Rebecca Ore
wrote:

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.
Yeah. It's going to come as an even bigger shock to you guys. But
you'll cope, as we all will have to.

Yes.....I don't see any real problems, myself......Getting rid of the
gas-guzzlers might be a traumatic experience for some, but I'm sure there
will be a number of other alternatives on the horizon. I see us as being
individually transportation orientated, but not necessarily gasoline
dependent as others seem to see us. When the gas runs out, we will just
take to electric vehicles or whatever we have to do. But crowding
together into busses or trains just isn't in the cards, and I just don't
see that it should have to be. We don't think that way, and our life
style isn't designed around that sort of thing. IOW, whatever they come
up with, you can be sure of one thing.....One person will be able to
leave his house in it, and drive it to wherever he wants to go without
having to be dependent on anyone else in order to go there. Whether it
burns alcohol, or peanut shells, or runs through storage batteries, or
picks up energy from the road or whatever, it will be a one man, one
destination at a time vehicle.....Of that, you can be sure.......
I agree, but it is a lot more fun if two can go together... Grin.
Technology WILL come through when the motivation reaches the necessary
level.

Yes.....I spent a lot of my commuting life on bicycles, and still more time
on small motorcycles. (My favorite was my Honda trail 90, which got 110
miles per gallon) I enjoyed every minute of it, but I know whereof I
speak....there was no way I could have handled group transportation. For one
thing, for years I had to carry tools and spare parts around with me, so
busses and the like were out of the question. I had to have my own vehicle
in order to do my job, and I knew a lot of other folks who were in the same
boat. (no pun intended) When you fix machines for a living, you can't handle
time restraints. You leave the installation when you are done, and not
before....When the last bus leaves can't have anything to do with
it.........

"Ron Hunter" wrote in message
...
Rebecca Ore wrote:
In article ,
"David J. Littleboy" wrote:

Seriously, I don't understand why more people don't decide not to own
cars. The (quite rational*) decision not to own a car ought to be a
possibility, right?

I live in Philadelphia for that reason -- public transportation. But I
may end up leaving Philadelphia for a better job. The only places where
Americans can afford not to have cars are small towns with viable
downtowns and a handful of cities which have good enough public
transportation. Some employers (Comcast in Philadelphia for one) have
moved back into the cities (over a transportation interchange in
Comcast's case); a lot are still out where the trans doesn't reach.

The infrastructure of the US is auto-centric.

It is freedom-centric. Most US residents just want to go where they want
to go, WHEN they want to go and don't want to wait on a bus, cab, or
subway. I find the whole idea of using public transportation VERY
restrictive, and confining.

And, for many occupations, impossible.......

"Laurence Payne" lpayne1NOSPAM@dslDOTpipexDOTcom wrote in message
...
On Tue, 26 Dec 2006 13:10:16 -0800, "William Graham"
wrote:

Depends on where you live, and what you do, or like to do. It would be
very
difficult for me to do without a car here in Salem, Oregon. We don't even
have a decent bus line that goes by my house, and most of the busses in
town
stop running at 10:00 PM every day. I have to go to the next town North of
me once a week for band practice, and the next town South of me for a
music
lesson every week.....Both places virtually inaccessible without my own
car.
If I had to do without a car, I would have to move to the heart of a very
large city just to be able to continue my two principal hobbies.
(photography and trumpet playing) And even then, getting to and from gigs
would be very problematical. - And then, there are our four cats.......

Do they drive too?

No, but their needs require the use of a car at all hours of the day and
night......Lets put it this way.....If I had to do without a car, I wouldn't
have four cats, I wouldn't have either photography or trumpet playing as a
hobby, and my life style would have developed in a totally different
direction from the way it has developed......I am now locked into an
individual transportation system, whether gasoline oriented or not.......

"Pudentame" wrote in message
...
David J. Littleboy wrote:
"Kennedy McEwen" wrote:

I personally don't want to see someone in my rear view mirror
approaching at 175MPH while I am stuck at traffic lights on my way home
from work.

The easy way to avoid that is to not own a car. (That's one of the
reasons I ended up in Tokyo.)

Seriously, I don't understand why more people don't decide not to own
cars. The (quite rational*) decision not to own a car ought to be a
possibility, right?


Unfortunately, many of us live in places where we would not be able to get
to work, buy groceries, get to school or do just about anything else in
life without a car.

I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking. There's no bus service at that time of
night, and damn little at any other time. And the streets I'd have to walk
do not have sidewalks for over half that distance.

The nearest grocery store is halfway to where I work. It's just about
where the sidewalks start. So to get groceries, I'd have to buy a wagon,
or some other cart and drag it 2-1/2 miles along busy streets with no
sidewalks to the store, and then drag it back along those same busy
streets with no sidewalks to get them home. Included in this stretch is a
long hill with a blind curve going to the bridge at the top. There's thick
hedges planted along the roadside to keep people from walking along the
shoulder where there's not even a place you could dive off the road if you
had to.

There is a convenience store with limited selection (and higher prices)
within a couple of blocks of my house, and I do always walk there.

Finally, what is *not* within walking distance of my house is many of the
places I want to go to take pictures.

Yes. Just because it might be possible to design one's life around an
existence without the automobile, that doesn't mean that it is something
than can be done at any time, without any trauma. Right now, both me and
millions of other Americans are virtually locked into personalized
transportation vehicles of one type or another....This isn't going to change
overnight. Their character may change. Their fuel source may change. But
millions of people can't just suddenly step into electric busses overnight
because of some law or other....To believe such a thing shows lack of basic
reasoning ability........

"Philip Homburg" wrote in message
.phicoh.net...
In article ,
Pudentame wrote:
I currently have to be at work at 3:00am. It's just over 5 miles away,
slightly more than an hour walking.

The nearest grocery store is halfway to where I work.

Ah, so all you need is a bicycle. :-)

For him, perhaps. But I am 71, and my weekly music lesson in Albany is over
20 miles away. I can't even use a moped, unless it's legal on I-5. There is
no reasonable way to get there without using the freeway.....Believe me, if
there was, I would buy a Honda trail 110 immediately.......