De-car-ing week: roundup

How I get around town, or a roundup of posts from this week's eco-topic:  De-car-ing. Be car-free and happy.

* A nice walk: Think walking is slow? What do you do when you run out of (soy) milk? I can walk two blocks to Co-opportunity or five blocks to Whole Foods.

* Bike me: Travel via bike and you'll be able to predict your arrival time within five to 10 minutes. There's the social factor too. With Critical Mass, Midnight Ridazz, C.I.C.L.E., and L.A. County Bicycle Coalition events (among others), biking friends are there for your meeting.

* Bus love: A bus novice? Just get to know one good line around you. A day pass ($5 for Metro, $3 for the Big Blue Bus) can cover all your errand-running needs!

* Green Taxis: For late nights out, I have Euro Taxi of Santa Monica's number in my cellphone to get me home. The company has four biodiesel and four compressed natural gas cabs out of 24 cabs in the fleet.

* Flexcar and the joys of semi-car ownership: I don't have my own car anymore. But I have access to a car whenever I need it. I've got Flexcar, which is like a regular car rental -- except you can rent by the half hour, instantly. And If I know I need a car for a full day, I just walk over to Enterprise and rent a car for $30 a day or less.

* Rail: Rail is so quiet and calm and clean! Plus, Metro rail costs just $1.25 a ride -- the same as a bus ride. Unfortunately, I don't have any rail lines near me -- yet.

Photo by Siel

Comments

[Pathist]

And for a bicycle and environment friendly religion choose Matrixism: The path of the One.

No kidding this a religion based on the movie The Matrix that is becoming popular among the Critical Mass set.

Some people really personalize and live a man versus machine ethos or maybe more accurately live abetter harmony between man and machine.

[Fleiter]

This is absolutely absurd. Your advice would not work for anyone who lives in an LA suburb. I lived in Tokyo for a few years. I could walk across much of the entire central city in a few hours. It was a pleasant walk, past shops and homes. When I returned to Agoura Hills, I tried to walk a few miles to a movie theater. It was horrible. It was not a pleasant walk. There were no sidewalks, no shops, nothing but litter and fast cars zipping close by me. Your ability to walk or even bike to your destination in this country is largely determined by where you live. If you live in Manhattan, Chicago's Inner Loop, or Venice Beach, you can de-car. Otherwise, the distances between your home and where you need to go make this concept a ridiculous bit of green BS. To de-car, people who live in suburbs would have to totally change their way of life. We need hydrogen cars and nuclear power if you really want to cut CO2.