Tag Archives: bike lanes

Consequences of a Car-centric Culture

I heard it said that a 9/11 number of car related deaths occurs every month. More people are killed by cars than in all our wars and gun related shootings. Car related death is the leading cause of fatality among children. This is probably not a big surprise to anyone but why shouldn’t we be alarmed? Car deaths and injuries have great economic and emotional cost to those affected by it. It’s primarily because of our total dependency upon cars. America over the last 100 years has become a car-centric culture. Pedestrians and bikers use our roadways at their own peril. Kids no longer walk or bike to school or play in my city. They are driven everywhere by parents because our streets have become too dangerous for such activities. When I was young I used to bike and walk everywhere. Continue reading

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Much Ado about Going Nowhere

Cars are the primary mode of transportation in the U.S. even for short distances. But there are alternatives to the use of cars if we are willing to get off our seats and use some human power to move ourselves from one place to another. Ironically the U.S. has one of the greatest stores of transportation energy in the world but all we do is accumulate it to great excess. That energy is our body fat which is embarrassingly abundant and a major cause of medical complications such as diabetes, heart and coronary disease, skeletal problems, and added weight that our bodies are not designed to constantly bear. Continue reading

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