10/18/08 - Oily Steel Coffins! Proof that cars are useless and CarFree is one good way to evolve out of the mess we are in. On a personal note, I took my octigenarian mother out to lunch and a drive last Saturday. Everything was fine until we went to watch the Blue War Devils spray pollution all over our skies (her request) down at Chrissy Field. It was over at 4pm and we waited out traffic for 45 minutes. We then spent from 4:45 until 7:45pm traveling 5.3 miles to the US101 freeway entrance downtown. We spent 10-15 minutes at a time stock frozen on city streets, unable to park or move at all. 4 hours of our personal lives, free from work, enslaved behind the wheel of an oily steel coffin. At one point, frozen in the middle of an intersection, my mother became sick and had to open the car door and throw up in the middle of the street. I couldn't park or move or get out to help her since we were STUCK. Yuk! I am accustomed to being on bike, and thereby free, for 99% of my travel and for me this was the absolute end of seeing any use in owning an automobile. I think that 95% of them should be dismantled and recycled into mini rail train cars and tracks so we can have a REAL transportation system. The other 5% can be converted to electric cars and vans that are available for sharing by neighborhood blocks.

-Sandy