It's not like I have much choice in the matter, y'see. As an American, I know the rest of you may think we 're a bit car crazy, but there are some solid reasons for this love affair. I recently endured the longest period of carelessness since I started driving at 16 - most of the month of December.

While I had, in the (distant) past, taken public transport to art school, I was lots younger, fitter, and uninjured. More significantly, buses and trains ran on a more inclusive number of routes and times back then. The transit system in Cleveland has contracted numerous times, first eliminating street cars, to the more recent dropping of routes & times. The kind of decent carless existence that exists in New York City or Boston is not possible here, outside of a few routes, mostly serving the inner city. Ironic, as the growing population downtown are high income new condo residents, while those of us in the inner ring suburbs have slid from middle class to poverty, and find it difficult to get to work carless.

Fer instance: To work a 4 hour shift one Saturday was a 7.5 hour round trip that included an hour between busses and walking nearly 3 miles. The pain that caused injured knees and feet lingered. It terrifies me that I would not be able to keep my job if this carlessness continued. I have always supported public transit & now, even more so. I'm fortunate (very) in that with good friends, vacation time, rides & car lends I only had to walk few more times, in unseasonably mild weather, and my dear, dead, Grace car has been succeeded by a 2012 low mileage gizmo laden wonder.

I find it sad that a car is necessary to my continued living a reasonable life in the place I have always lived. With mobility issues, it's scarier. Wishing you all ease in getting here you need to go-

Joanne in Cleveland, but not on a bus route