That's what my life was like without a car:
- Go to kindergarten - walking - 2 km one-way
- Go to elementary school - walking - 1.5 km one-way
- Go to high school - walking - 1.5 km one-way
- Go to college - by bus - 5 km - and walking - 1 km one-way
- Go from home to work - walking - 1.5 km one-way
- Go from the second location to work - walking - 1 km one-way
- Go from a third location to work - bus or bicycle - 5 km one-way
- For the past 20 years I've been going from home to work either by foot and taking a bus, or by taking a ride with my wife or a coworker - 11 km one-way.
My way to go to the workplace:
Our home on a hill (wife has a car -- a Hyundai Atos - and takes care it's used rationally)
A view from our hill to the bus stop down below.
I start off by walking downhill through the forest and to the bus stop - 2.5 km.
"Morje" bus stop.
Taking a bus to the next town (Hoce) - 8 km. (Fare: 1.8 euro).
By foot to the company where I work - 0.5 km
While I certainly don't expect that everybody would give up a car like I have, I believe that everybody has a chance to decide to do something beneficial for a cleaner environment, a cleaner planet, for the health of all of us. Everyone without exception. There's no excuse! We can't only talk, we have to make a decision and stick to it.
I hope my post will encourage others as well to add their personal experiences with public transportation to this web site.
My son Rok also doesn't own a car. For the past 3 years while living in Tokyo, he's been relying on a very efficient public transportation there. Before that, while living in LA for 9 years, he's been using public buses and trains there.
