ICOSA
Velorution
RECEIVED Wed., May 4, 2005
Dear Editor,
I hate to send you two letters in one week, but I had no sooner finished replying to Mr. Keith's friendly epistle [“Postmarks Online,” April 29] than I was bemused by Michael Ventura's column [“Letters@3am,” April 29]. Mr. Ventura is right about one thing: The age of the car is coming to an end. People are going to have to slow down and stop zooming around on highways so much. The slowdown can be sudden, like a car crash. Or we can choose to slow down voluntarily before we are forced to, and thus slow down gracefully and without major injuries.
Suppose that we realize now that the supply of oil is decreasing and that gasoline will not remain cheap. What if we decided to restrict cars on some streets so that people on foot, on bicycles, and on electric bicycles could feel comfortable using them? If we can stop treating human-powered travelers as second-class citizens, motorists will not be so devastated when they find they must join this group themselves.
Transportation using your God-given legs and heart is free. That's what car, oil, and road corporations don't like about it. Look at all the money we pay for something that used to be free. And we pay more than money. With car users riding roughshod over everyone else on every street, the roads are so dangerous that people don't dare use free transportation.
Couldn't we restrict cars so that, say, 5% of the street-miles were a car-free network that spanned the city? Surely this isn't impossible. It would allow children to get to school by themselves, which by itself would save plenty of gasoline. Keeping a little space reserved for free transportation could make the coming slowdown much more pleasant.
I hate to send you two letters in one week, but I had no sooner finished replying to Mr. Keith's friendly epistle [“Postmarks Online,” April 29] than I was bemused by Michael Ventura's column [“Letters@3am,” April 29]. Mr. Ventura is right about one thing: The age of the car is coming to an end. People are going to have to slow down and stop zooming around on highways so much. The slowdown can be sudden, like a car crash. Or we can choose to slow down voluntarily before we are forced to, and thus slow down gracefully and without major injuries.
Suppose that we realize now that the supply of oil is decreasing and that gasoline will not remain cheap. What if we decided to restrict cars on some streets so that people on foot, on bicycles, and on electric bicycles could feel comfortable using them? If we can stop treating human-powered travelers as second-class citizens, motorists will not be so devastated when they find they must join this group themselves.
Transportation using your God-given legs and heart is free. That's what car, oil, and road corporations don't like about it. Look at all the money we pay for something that used to be free. And we pay more than money. With car users riding roughshod over everyone else on every street, the roads are so dangerous that people don't dare use free transportation.
Couldn't we restrict cars so that, say, 5% of the street-miles were a car-free network that spanned the city? Surely this isn't impossible. It would allow children to get to school by themselves, which by itself would save plenty of gasoline. Keeping a little space reserved for free transportation could make the coming slowdown much more pleasant.
Yours for velorution,
Amy Babich
Amy Babich