Public Transportation and Smart Growth

with no car. She and her children rely on the bus and rail system to get to work and school. Her oldest daughter hops the rail all the time to visit her father in Brussels, or to travel to the coast with her friends for the weekend. It's reliable and much less expensive. We often talk about how much more it cost me to operate my little Nissan Versa, with payments, upkeep, insurance, and gas compared to her bus and rail pass.

She admits there are days when she really hates the walk to and from the grocery store (only three blocks from her house) but on really bad days, a neighbor or co-worker will take her in their car.

When I lived in Miami, I drove two miles to the Metro station and rode the metrorail downtown to work...I loved it. But even Miami needed to upgrade their transit system.

I realize, as someone posted eariler, the money we spend in endless wars would be better spent on our infrastructurem but as long as US car makers (or whoever sells cars in the US), and oil companies lobby against high speed rail, we'll never see the system we really need.