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Transportation »
Return to full transportation vision
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Share your comments below!
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A culture that supports active transportation, including fun and community-oriented events--such as car-free Bike Sundays, bike parties, and other walk-n-roll events. This will be sustained by a transportation system that encourages and allows social interaction. All the studies tell us that happiness correlates with social interaction. Cars isolate us.
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Comments (3)
Biking and walking have enormous health benefits. I know I was healthier when I could bike to work. Active transportation saves lives, and public money in reduced healthcare needs.
I think it's really hard to say that "cars isolate us" as a blanket statement. Carpools can be really useful, effective, and can create incredibly fun bonding moments. People want to go on road-trips with their friends for a reason.
Also, though I hate to admit it, cars are truly essential in our county and I'm not sure that public transportation will ever entirely be able to make up for them. When it takes at least an hour to get from the south end of Sonoma County to the north end by car, sometimes taking a bus can seem unrealistic and even unreasonable as far as time and energy go.
The idea that I have would be that the only vehicles allowed on city streets would be mass transit and emergency vehicles. Everyone would have to ride mass transit intercity and intracity. For rural dwellers who live far from transit lines we would have park and ride lots such as the ones in Forestville and Guerneville. When mass transit is unobstructed by traffic it is very fast indeed. A properly designed train that doesn't have to contend with traffic can go much faster than any car. Even a bus on an unobstructed street would be faster than traffic. Carpools are a small exception to a general rule. But you're right, they are an exception. Mass transit would need to have space below for large numbers of bicycles.
We need to develop practical and userfriendly ways for bike riders to use public transit and their bikes in the same trip, and not get stranded, eg after dark and it's raining and you want to take the last bus home--user needs to know in real time if the bus will have space for their bike, and if not, be able to access secure overnight bike parking in time to secure the bike and get that last bus home.