Getting Around

In today’s life for many it is unthinkable to not have transportation available at will at any time. This wasn’t always like that and certainly isn’t like that for the population in many places.

Once the automobile was becoming the center of fulfilling our transportation needs, our city and land use plans were designed around the need of the car. Eventually this has contributed a lot to the fragmentation in our lives. We live at a different place where we shop, where we work and where we meet with friends or where we learn. The distances are often so far that without a car we would not be able to go from place of our activity to the next.

Besides the huge amount of land area dedicated to cars, including streets, parking lots and garages and the resources needed to mine materials, build, fuel and use, dispose off and maintain them, cars are, if not the largest, definitely one of the largest contributors to air pollution and are a leading cause of accidental death in the US.

Don’t get me wrong, the car or car like transportation has its place, for example in any emergency situations.

Question is, what are the alternatives? In short, one of the best things to do is to start reorganizing one lives, which can be a process over several years, to become less dependent on the car. Besides all the benefits that this is counteracting the above mentioned problems, it will save money, most likely increase healthy habits and scale down over-committed schedules.

Here some options:

  • Move closer to where you work. Working from home would be the closest.
  • Move to a location where the distances to some or all of the places one shops, meets friends, works or attends events and learns, plays and relaxes can be reached by without a car. This has a big reducing effect on your ecological footprint.
  • De-clutter ones life and take back your time. Less hectic lifestyles mean less motorized transportation.
  • Use public transportation where feasible, buses and trains, etc.
  • Join car pooling and ride-sharing schemes
  • Wait to use the car when you can do many things at once and don’t have a trip for each individually.
  • Walk and bike.