Quote Originally Posted by limewave View Post
I just wanted to comment on the 6-8 year olds in the strollers. That's crazy! I've seen it too. We have a 2 yo and she HATES riding in the stroller. She'll do okay in it if I take her for a run, but otherwise she wants to walk. Even when we take a long family stroll of 4 to 5 miles, she'll walk about a mile of it herself before she rides.
6-8 year olds in strollers??? How ridiculous! At that age kids should definitely be expected to walk--they should be capable of keeping up with the adults reasonably well so there's no reason to have them ride. Talk about starting them off with bad habits...

As for the car-free thing, I'd have to agree with those who have said it depends on where you live and what stage of life you're in (young kids etc.). Unfortunately most of the USA is just not set up for being able to do what you need to do without a car, unless you're in a big city like Boston or NYC where things are close together and there's good public transportation. That said, I think we can all find ways to reduce our driving by using our bikes or walking for shorter trips, taking public transportation into major cities rather than driving in (if your area has commuter rail service, that is) and linking trips when we do need to drive. The Zipcar type services seem like a good solution for people who do live in major cities but need to get out of the city every so often to do certain things (or just for their mental health...).