[ale] Linux Sys Admin needed

[tom]

On Thu, 15 Jun 2006, JK wrote:

> Jim Popovitch wrote:
>
>>  Charles Shapiro wrote:
>>
>>> Wow, that thread about commuting definitely hit a nerve. BTW the
>>> ATL is the WORST city in America for bicycling.
>>>
<<snip>>
> OTOH, I spent two weeks in Portland OR
> last month visiting a client, and rented a bike in
> order to avoid turning into a slab of lard.  I
> also had a really nice rental car, but it turned out
> that in Portland, bicycling was a *much* better way
> of getting around the city than driving.  At rush
> hour, the 4-mile drive from my hotel to the client
> site took about 40 minutes, including finding parking
> (which was sometimes impossible); biking took
> about 20 minutes, because nearly every single major
> street had a lane reserved for bikes; and parking a
> bike is never a problem.  Furthermore,
> motorists in Portland respect the bike lanes. Plus,
> downtown Portland has bike-friendly and *FREE*
> mass transit! It was really an excellent experience.
> Someone moving from Portland to Atlanta (or El Paso)
> would probably feel like they went 20 years backward
> in time.
>
<<snip>>
I've been to Portland once, and that for only a few hours, but those few 
hours were fairly impressive. It seemed like you could get anywhere in the 
immediate area via mass transit, bikes were _everywhere_, and everything 
just seemed accessable. Driving seemed a little scary, but then I was in a 
rented 9 passenger van which made _everything_ a little scary for me (the 
driver).