A 12-Step Program For Car Junkies
Step One
Admit that our dependence on driving alone has made the traffic on our freeways and streets unmanageable.
"We have met the enemy and he is us." -- Pogo
Step Two
Make a fearless moral inventory of our ecological values and recognize how our dependence on driving costs the environment: air quality, solid waste, gasoline production, loss of open space from sprawl. Measure your ecological footprint at earthday.net
Step Three
Consider the health effects of lack of exercise. Wear a pedometer to see if we walk 10,000 steps each day. Consider the mental health effects of fighting traffic. Count how many times we use colorful language in addressing someone in another car that we would not feel comfortable saying to his or her face.
Step Four
Recognize the personal financial cost of owning and operating a car. Add up our monthly car payments, maintenance and repairs, gas, tires, parking, insurance and compare to costs of alternative transportation (monthly bus or train pass, car rental, car sharing, and taxi fare).
Step Five
Recognize how by putting cars first in designing our streets and buildings we have built places that we find inhospitable and ugly.
Step Six
Be ready to change our ways.
Step Seven
Visit the Metro and other transit websites and learn how to use them: mta.net; metrolinktrains.net; Amtrak.com; ridematch.org. Find out how to get to the Burbank Airport from downtown LA in 20 minutes on a Friday evening during rush hour (hint: Metrolink).
Step Eight
Take an excursion by public transportation sometime when we don't feel pressured for time or when parking will be a major hassle. Such as going to a Dodger game, Staples Center, the Hollywood Bowl, or any event involving street closures. Take the Gold Line to Old Town Pasadena; take the Red Line to Hollywood just to walk around. Take the Rapid bus nearest home or work: Wilshire/Whittier, Ventura Blvd, Vermont, Colorado Blvd, etc. Figure out a route for a routine trip, such as home to work. And try it once a week.
Step Nine
Put on our walking shoes and dust those cobwebs off our bicycles.
Step Ten
Buy a weekly Metro pass and figure out our preferred transit pastimes (PTP) such as reading the paper, listing to music, knitting, people watching, putting on make-up, working on a laptop, staring out the window, sleeping, etc.
Step Eleven
Plan our strategies for when we do need a car. Figure out how to take a taxi. Sign up for car sharing: www.flexcar.com
Step Twelve
Breathe easy when we arrive at our destinations relaxed and alert rather than frazzled from fighting the traffic and looking for parking.
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