Going still further, people who say they “need” a car because of where they live should not have chosen to live there in the first place. I would never live in a neighborhood or participate in a lifestyle where owning a car is imperitive to my survival, and anyone who does so is just contributing to the problem of car dependence.

I hope more people begin to see the CLEAR CONNECTION between cigarette and car dependence. Cars- and the ugly byproducts of cars (strip malls, freeways, drive-thrus, gas stations, roads through otherwise beautiful landscapes, sprawl, etc)- are every bit as ugly and disgusting as a pack of smokes. If cigarettes killed as many innocent children every year as cars do, and in as violent and gruesome a manner, they would be eradicated.

Cars are old technology, and we need to move on as a society. High tech passenger and freight rail, light rail, walkable car-independent neighborhoods, pedestian/bicycle-only throughfares… these are things we can do to improve health, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and deal with future energy constraints. Leave the fossil fuel-burning trucks and cars to the people who need them (ie. farmers, police, firemen, military).

Thank you for your post. I hope the car-driving world catches up to you at some point. You’re ahead of your time.

There’s some talk above about us “Europeans” driving small non-guzzling cars.

Sure we do.

So will you North American guys when you have to pay 4 times as much for your gasoline as you do at the moment. Don’t worry Fox – the days of the Hummer et al are numbered.

In a rural environment cars and trucks are a necessity, not a matter of convenience or vanity.

Maybe in the near future civic leaders will recognize this and the costs of owning a car (in terms of insurance and taxes) will rise to offset the increase in social liability presented by cities where driving is the norm. Then again maybe not, seeing as this is Amerika where people feel entitled to guzzle gas and smoke and not smoke and go crazy in pursuit of happiness.

For now I’m happy riding my bike, riding in cars and rolling my smokes.

Simon, if your car doesn’t excite you, it’s definitely time to get a new car, not no car.

On a different note, I absolutely DETEST bikers in large cities. Not only are their manoeuvres in traffic often suicidal, but they have very little respect for the vehicles around them in general. Biking is a horrible alternative to driving in urban areas.

I’ll grant that cars can be quite useful, but for many people who use them they actually are *not* necessary, and to call them “perfectly safe and harmless” is insane.

Michael J. McFadden
Author of “Dissecting Antismokers’ Brains”

I’m so happy that you are fortunate enough to live close enough to everything that you can bike everywhere for all your needs. That you have no family to transport from point A to point B. I can only hope they don’t get lung cancer from it.

You never have to leave town for any reason. Never have to move across country. Your life already sounds so thrilling.

Yet most likely you are probably like this character I work with who doesn’t own a car or have a license because of how “evil” and “useless” they are. Yet everyday she tries getting rides home from people. Always asking for ride to places on the weekend that are obviously way to far too bike.

This article isn’t about that though is it? Its about how cars (a necessary means of transport thats very useful, perfectly safe and harmless) are the same as smoking (a fad that develops into an addiction, causes health problems, has no real helpful use in society, and is a mind-altering agent). Amazing…

…retarted just fits.