Lori wrote: >Washington, DC, in particular has one of the cleanest, >most reliable, and most reasonably-priced public >transit systems, yet scads of people drive their cars >- -- SANS PASSENGERS -- into downtown from 10 blocks >away or less. (I work with a woman like this.) Then >they bitch about the cost of parking ($9-$15 a day in >most places). Lori, I won't argue with you that there are lots of DC folks who should be using the subway, but I will contend that we have a terribly inefficient transit system. Maybe it's just 'cause I'm from NY and was accustomed to being able to get from the lower east side to the upper west side in 15-20 minutes, I don't know. I'm an anti-big car person (have we all gone crazy or what? even if you're one of those bury-your-head-in-the-sand folks who refuses to believe that we're heavily damaging the environment, did we learn nothing from the gulf war and our reliance on foreign oil?) and I use my bicycle almost equally as my car for local transport. In almost every situation, I find it difficult to use the subway here. There's no stop in Georgetown or Adams Morgan - two of the cities' central neighborhoods. My principle place of work is only one block away from a metro station, yet it takes 12 minutes for me to drive, 30 minutes to ride my bike, and 65 minutes to take the metro. To go to Takoma Park, I have to walk 10 blocks, get on a train, switch to another train, and then walk to my destination. Haven't tried it yet, because it only takes 12 minutes to drive there, which is about how long it would take me just to walk to the station (and if it weren't cold out, I'd be biking). When I lived in Fairfax, it took 25 minutes to get to the nearest metro station, where parking wasn't ample, take the train, get out, walk 10 blocks to get a bus - 80-95 minutes total v. 45 to drive. This is something that really needs to change, and I'm sure DC isn't the only place in need of a few less cars. This is probably a pretty boring email for most of you, but whenever I get a chance to get anyone to rethink their transportation or their stand on it, I can't help myself. barbara np; youssou n'dour, joko
