Unnecessary driving. A mini rant.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Hi. Why do many people use their car to drive 4 blocks to the store, pick up potato chips or other obviously easy-to-carry items and come back home 5 minutes later? I was on my porch earlier this afternoon, and I saw my neighbors do that 2 times. They could walk, saving nasty emissions and getting some exercise. The funny thing is that these folks recycle every week and all that. I wish all the parking enforcement people keep whining about and the difficulty in finding parking to begin with, at least resulted in less unnecessary driving. There, that's my pedestrian mini rant.

Comments

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

It's a twist on people who get pissed off if they can't park right near the door of their fitness club and :: gasp :: have to walk 100 yards to the door.

Maybe if your neighbors had to purchase carbon offsets.....

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

i recently saw a picture on the internets of a fitness place with an escalator up to the front door.

(of course, you can get picky and go into how certain people can't do certain things and blah blah but i prefer to stick to the initial lulz.)

also, to answer the OP's question: "because we're lazy." :D

:-)

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Oh well...

[gandalfgreyhame.livejournal.com]

You should confront them as belligerently as possible about their flagrant disregard for the environment and your delicate sensibilities.

[miss-lisa-ma.livejournal.com]

Perhaps they were on a tight deadline and were so hurried, they were forgetting things. Perhaps one of them has injured a part of the body necessary for walking and/or carrying. Perhaps you lack sufficient information about the incidents at hand to assume that the only factor worth consideration is the environmental one.

I saw them walking just fine withouh a cane.

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

But true, perhaps they were in a rush because some stupid TV show was about to start and they had run out of chips! I hope this does not sound too judgmental :)

Re: I saw them walking just fine withouh a cane.

[incandes-flower.livejournal.com]

I'm not saying this applies in this particular situation, but plenty of people who walk without canes can have physical impairments. There are plenty of "invisible" illnesses that many people don't know much about and cast judgment on others all the time. However, I'm speaking from the perspective of someone who lives with one of these illnesses. I don't walk with a cane, but I have two hip replacements and Rheumatoid Arthritis and yes, some days I do drive up to the CVS five blocks away to get my medicine or other such things I feel I need. Walking and biking everywhere is indeed better for the environment, but it is also a privilege that some of us do not have and should be considered when deciding to call people lazy.

a mini-lecture about mini-rants

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Questions like this: "why do people drive 4 blocks...?" are, in fact very important questions to ask if we hope to inspire changes in behavior. The trick, though, is to find a way to ask the question that will actually result in answers. Which is to say, it's more or less ineffectual ranting to say "why do people drive when they could walk... they should walk..." etc. But it's valuable social-research to ask "no, really, can we try to look and find out why *do* people make short drives? and what changes might be helpful in changing that behavior? Let's start with an assumption that there *is* a reason, and try to figure out what it is, so that then it will be easier to change behavior."

ranting is boring. science is sexy.

Re: a mini-lecture about mini-rants

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

Yes, I agree. But I was following up on the parking tickets rant. Pedestrians who don't own cars can whine too!

Re: a mini-lecture about mini-rants

[craigindaville.livejournal.com]

Agreed. While much of this behavior is based on personality, much of it, including the reference to southern CA driving habits below, is learned by being almost forced upon us. For instance, in LA, there is nary a sidewalk anywhere, and walking anywhere more than about 50 feet away becomes actually dangerous. Plus, people from LA are lazy and pompous (oh, wait, that's my Santa Cruz showing!).

[plumtreeblossom.livejournal.com]

It's a cultural thing for some, I think. I had a roommate from southern California. She would literally drive around the corner to the convenience store, which would have been a 1 minute walk, then spend 15 minutes waiting for a parking spot near the entrance. She lived here for about 2 months and then moved out to Lexington where she could drive everywhere.

[arrowintwolakes.livejournal.com]

See, I'd be too worried I'd lose my cherry parking space right in front of my house.

[sparkgrrl658.livejournal.com]

this.

here i will walk everywhere, but when i'm home (rhode island), you drive to the end of the street to go to the drug store. people would actually look at you like you were crazy if you did walk, and probably also ask you if something happened to your car. even my father, who goes running every day, drives to the gas station to get a gallon of milk.

[anyee.livejournal.com]

Why do those pedestrians cross in the middle of the street where there's no crosswalk so I have so swerve to avoid them, when the end of the street is RIGHT THERE? Why do they insist in "running" across when it's a green light for me and I might not have good stopping distance? It would only take a few minutes to get themselves to a safe location, but no, they are in a rush to the meeting of the "Holier Than Thou" club in the local gay-friendly eco-green church.

Here's a stone. Nice glass house.

I hate pedestrians who cross when cars have a green light as well!

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

It's just stupid and they block traffic.

[ringrose.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't know. I'm not one of "those pedestrians." Keep your rock, you might need it.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

As a homophobic tree-hater (I especially fear the gay trees, you can tell they're gay by how they sashay when the wind blows through them), I resent being stereotyped.

[m00n.livejournal.com]

It keeps the drivers guessing thus encouraging them to drive more slowly and, ultimately, kill fewer pedestrians. It's all part of a vast conspiracy.

[thetathx1138.livejournal.com]

Your personal journal is that way. --------->

[anotherjen.livejournal.com]

*thumbs up*

I may be your replacement, pal...

[nvidia99999.livejournal.com]

You never know...

[duffless2323.livejournal.com]

AMEN

[m00n.livejournal.com]

1. Because gasoline is so cheap that it's almost the same as if it were free.

and

2. If you haven't seen LA Story (or been to LA for that matter), you should.

[curiositykt.livejournal.com]

Really I just wish all the stupid pedestrians would just stay home and stop walking on the streets so we could drive.. Not to mention those awful bikes swerving into the traffic all the time.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Frankly I wish stores would just make all their aisles wider so I could drive right up to the cereal aisle and get what I needed THROUGH MY OPEN WINDOW. I'd settle for drive-through stores of all kinds, though.