LiveWell Fountain Column 

Are we creating a community or a car mutiny? 
As with any commodity as global demand increases, prices will increase.  Gas, diesel and asphalt are no exception.  If you have been watching the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, you have to wonder how a country comprised mostly of a billion poor farming, bicycle riding peasants built a city that appears more modern than any U.S. city.  While our nation has been spending trillions of dollars on the military efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan, China has been building an industrial powerhouse.  China is manufacturing everything and anything and shipping it to us cheaper than we can manufacture in domestically.  They are also manufacturing a wide variety of cars, which we will soon be buying if we don't wake up.  To fuel their new cars, the Chinese people will demand oil, as will India and many other rapidly developing nations.  My bet is on continually increasing gas prices no matter what we do domestically to drill for more. 

This is no time to fret about the rising price of fuel.  Instead we should look at the opportunities created by higher fuel costs.  We now have an opportunity to create a new economy and new building codes that return us to more livable communities with more of a human rather than automobile scale.  Probably the best real world, real time example is the Safe Routes to School (SR2S) program.  SR2S is a portion of the Transportation Equity Act that is funding projects making it safer and easier for kindergarten - 8th grade students to get to and from school without motorized transportation.  Imagine cul-de-sacs with pedestrian/bike portals that enable people to efficiently and quickly go where cars can't.  Think of how nice it would be to walk to a friend's house faster than you could drive there.  Imagine sidewalks built within welcoming neighborhoods rather than outside of sub-division perimeter walls alongside major arterial streets.  Imagine vertical curbs that encourage motorists to park their cars in the street rather than on the sidewalk.  Imagine substantially less money being spent on school busing by enabling more students to live within the walk radius of their schools just by eliminating car oriented barriers to safe walking and cycling.

Change is always uncomfortable and sometimes painful but change brings opportunities.  There are many superb examples of better ways to build our communities.  Stop and think of what meant the most to you as a child.  What made you feel safe, secure, and a part of the neighborhood?   Does the neighborhood you live in now provide those same feelings?  If not, why?  Ask yourself what could be changed to encourage adults and kids to be outside more?  Have we accepted a car mutiny as a community?  Are you ready to take back your community for your children?
Al Brody
Pikes Peak Area Bike Coalition

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