There was some movie Steve Martin was in ages ago, where he lived in LA or something. Anyway, at one point he got in his car to drive a block or two to a friend's house, and the entire theatre erupted into laughter at how ridiculous that was.
Now I see that every day. I see people load their garbage bags into their cars and drive to the dumpster 2 buildings down from their apartment. Then they do a U-ie and park in front of their apartment building again, task completed.
Freakin' nuts-o world, I'm tellin' ya.
ETA: here's a fun fact. 1/4 of car trips in the US are LESS than 1 mile! http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/200803/twowheeled.asp