Cost of gasoline, worldwide- Good thing we bike

[marni]

Marni, since you lived in the Netherlands and had the great experience of raising a family without super heavy use of cars, now living in Texas, you're a poster family of how it is possible to adapt. If the community is properly designed with transportation alternatives.

ahh but the if is the biggest part of the deal. I am not foreseeing any transportation alternatives in the near future of any Houston suburb.

In the Netherlands we lived in a row house (the Dutch equivalent of a town house) and had a pocket front garden that was 15 feet square and a back yard that was 25 by 75.

easy to keep clean, mowed, take care of, and if the kids needed a place to play, there was a playground within 1/4 mile in either direction and school playgrounds and community sport fields about 1/2 mile away.

As in the Netherlands, we lived on the edge of burbs on the borderline between farmland and development yet here, the closest school playground is 1.5 miles away, a community playground about 3/4 mile away. If I had young kids still they would find no obstacle in walking or biking that far, but I never see young kids in our neighborhood out, playing in the very not busy streets, playgrounds or sport fields. Yeah, I know it gets hot and humid here, but that's not for the whole year nor early mornings or late afternoons.

It's all about lifestyles and what people are prepared to embrace.

but thanks for the back pat.

marni

[marni]

from another biking /facebook site.

Trek Women
Almost half of daily travel in the Netherlands is by bike, including the bicycle school bus. Would this work in your city or for your kids?

Dutch Kids Pedal Their Own Bus To School
www.fastcoexist.com
The Dutch are bicycle fanatics. Almost half of daily travel in the Netherlands is by bicycle, while the country’s bike fleet comfortably outnumbers its 16 million people. Devotees of the national obsession have taken the next logical step by launching what is likely the first bicycle school bus.