<div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, Jun 18, 2010 at 1:10 PM, Lightner, Jeff <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jlightner@water.com">jlightner@water.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
One problem with trying to be responsible is that smaller cars only fit<br>
smaller people. Being 6'3" and ...umm... full figured I find few<br>
"cars" that actually fit me. Despite that I've shopped around and<br>
found cars that do and resisted the urge to simply get a pickup or SUV<br>
even though I know many of of them will.<br></blockquote><div><br>I'm 6'2", 270. I got along just fine for many years in a Honda Civic Hatchback and get along now in a Honda Accord. It *is* roomier when I drive the family mini-van, but for commuting between Marietta and Duluth, my primary choice is the car since it gets better mileage.<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); padding-left: 1ex;">
If "public transportation" actually went from point to point AND was<br>
policed so that thugs and lunatics didn't make it unbearable more people<br>
would probably prefer to use it. Having had to use it back when I was<br>
young and poor and had cheap auto insurance taught me that it is fairly<br>
worthless and only masochists would willingly subject themselves to its<br>
use if they could afford any other method.<br></blockquote><div><br></div>Too many folks in the Atlanta metropolitan area don't want mass transit because it would allow "the wrong element" to more easily make it out to the suburbs. I'm not a masochist, but I'd use MARTA rail if it could get me from Marietta to Duluth and back in under 2 hours one way. Sadly, the northern burbs would rather run their own transit systems instead of pooling resources and extend coverage to the places that need it. "Can't have those thugs and lunatics able to ride out near my house and steal my stuff". . . . because stealing your stuff using mass transit is so efficient.<br>
<br>But instead the county and state governments decry the increased traffic while spending more and more money on road construction and maintenance while doing nothing to address the real problem: all the people in all the cars. All because the folks in the 'burbs think the folks riding mass transit ITP are all "thugs and lunatics" and "we don't want 'the wrong element' coming out where we live".<br>
<br>If only the cities with good mass transit weren't also the cities where the winters are cold and bitter. C'est la vie.<br clear="all"></div><br>-- <br>Dylan Northrup<br>"Adversity is just change we haven't adapted ourselves to yet."<br>
- Aimee Mullins<br>