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Cars may not be essential anymore
The News-Times [Danbury, CT] ^ | December 11, 2006 | Mark Langlois

Posted on 12/11/2006 6:50:33 AM PST by LurkedLongEnough

For all the nonsense about the love affair between Americans and their cars, people seem to spend a whole lot of time and effort to avoid climbing into a car.

Super Stop & Shop's Peapod provides home delivery of groceries. That eliminates one's weekly trip to the grocery store. Get the grocery list online, pick the items, and the food appears in the insulated box outside your house.

People can go to Match, Jdate, EHarmony and Match.com to start dating without even heading to a bar. What happened to joining the ski club? What happened to taking night classes? Tennis, anyone? Too much car involved with all that.

How about Greensingles. com? That's for Naturenuts who want to get together with other natural types.

Actually, Naturenuts may be a strong way to describe them. The Web site says it is for vegetarians, animal rights activists, and environmentalists to meet each other. Talk about a good time.

Back in the day, a person would head to the bar and meet a few people. Buy someone a drink. Talk and decide if the person was OK or not. Get her number, and agree to meet later or another day.

I'm willing to bet even money it still works that way on Manhattan's Upper East Side.

In some cities, grocery stores are famous people pickup places. On the waterfront in San Francisco's Marina district was a famous grocery store where singles went to meet people they might like to date. To find a match, they would look in each other's grocery cart.

A Naturenut, for example, might check out the items in a person's cart to see if they're compatible. No ground beef. No steaks. No fur coat. O.K. It's veggies, pita and a match. Go back to the apartment and make dinner together.

A similar spot in San Francisco is the Buena Vista, a restaurant near Fisherman's Wharf. One famous story I know about the Buena Vista involves two people who went there by cable car, separately, and met and later married. They never owned a car.

John came from Sydney, Australia, and he'd heard stories about the Buena Vista in Australia to the point where he took a taxi (yes, that's a car) from the airport to the cable car to get there.

He got off at Fisherman's Wharf, found the bar and started drinking Irish coffees. He stayed for two days and met the woman who became his wife. Neither one of them owned a car. John literally traveled 4,000 miles -- without a car -- to meet a woman and settle down -- without a car.

People do so many things to avoid driving. How about the Domino pizza chain? The whole entire concept is you don't have to go out for Domino's. It's all about home delivery.

Animal groomers are willing to drive their grooming van to your house, and some vets will make house calls.

Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Editorial; US: Connecticut
KEYWORDS: automobile; bmw; car; cars; chrysler; driving; fomoco; ford; gm; honda; hyundai; internet; jeep; mercedesbenz; mitsubishi; suv; towme; toyota; truck; volkswagen
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To: LurkedLongEnough
Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past.

Yep this liberal r-tard has it right, why everyone knows that the expressways are virtually empty and that the only cars on them are in the HOV lanes. As I walked the 12 miles to work this morning just to avoid my car I was unable to make very good time due to the vast numbers of other pedestrians on the sidewalks. Why some said that they walked 30 miles each way every day to avoid gettting in their cars. Some said that they'd walk a hundred miles just to avoid their cars < /sarcasm>

41 posted on 12/11/2006 7:18:24 AM PST by from occupied ga (Your most dangerous enemy is your own government)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
"Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past."


Ya Can't Get There From Here

/s

42 posted on 12/11/2006 7:18:52 AM PST by Condor51 (Tagline Under Construction - Kindly Wear Your Hardhat)
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To: caver

Actually it's apparently another planet.


43 posted on 12/11/2006 7:20:41 AM PST by xowboy
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To: Pikachu_Dad

"How much rum is in those Irish coffees?
I wonder if he has any buyers remorse?"

Any woman would look good after drinking rum for two days.


44 posted on 12/11/2006 7:21:45 AM PST by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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To: bert

I've heard of people in places like New York City not driving but not in Connecticut.


45 posted on 12/11/2006 7:23:13 AM PST by caver (Yes, I did crawl out of a hole in the ground.)
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To: JamesP81
LOL! I was just talking about this the other day. Being in computer science, people sometimes ask me when that paperless office is coming. The truth is that computers didn't reduce the paper in the office; they made it possible to print more paper, faster, than ever before.

Ha...very true. I'm in my 20s and have grown up with computers, and sit in front of one for 12 hours a day. Yet when I'm writing a brief or doing research, I still print constantly. There's nothing like having it all in front of you with the ability to make a quick note. Perhaps when 40" widescreen touch-sensitive desktop displays are more affordable, I'll be paperless.
46 posted on 12/11/2006 7:25:59 AM PST by July 4th (A vacant lot cancelled out my vote for Bush.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

It's a slap at the internet, saying we don't communicate because it's all long distance.

But facts don't support his premise. The freeways are full and bars and restaurants are full.

What he apparently misses is the old days when you HAD to bitch about politics face to face to a small group of people who could only do that - just bitch. Now, we have the option to do the former while also networking with thousands across the country simultaneously and from time to time expose crooked politicians and medial personalities. Imagine that!


47 posted on 12/11/2006 7:26:29 AM PST by Larry Lucido
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To: Rockhound

We tried several of those Home Delivery grocery services. they were fine for canned goods and soap, but we also found it gives the market a great change to get rid of wilted vegetables and carrion.


48 posted on 12/11/2006 7:28:04 AM PST by Gorzaloon ("Illegal Immigrant": The Larval form of A Democrat.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

Whatever


49 posted on 12/11/2006 7:28:24 AM PST by SengirV
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To: Condor51

Is that Wyoming....... 11 miles of perfectly straight road?


50 posted on 12/11/2006 7:28:45 AM PST by bert (K.E. N.P. Rozerem commercials give me nightmares)
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To: Gorzaloon
"change" = "chance".

More coffee.

The memory of impersonating a buzzard must have rattled me!

51 posted on 12/11/2006 7:29:55 AM PST by Gorzaloon ("Illegal Immigrant": The Larval form of A Democrat.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
People can go to Match, Jdate, EHarmony and Match.com to start dating without even heading to a bar.

I've had better luck in AOL chatrooms (and they are VERY bad) than with any of the above services. Fifty levels of deep compatibility, my tush!

52 posted on 12/11/2006 7:32:15 AM PST by NRA1995 (Clinton "tried", 3000 died)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

Hey, not everyone in CT is an idiot!

And no, I don't drive a car, mine's an SUV.


53 posted on 12/11/2006 7:32:51 AM PST by Fierce Allegiance (SAY NO TO RUDY!)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
Maybe the love affair with the automobile is a thing of the past.

HA!

My wife will give up her Lincoln when they pry her cold, dead hands from the steering wheel, and not until!

City folks. Sheesh!

54 posted on 12/11/2006 7:35:31 AM PST by Smokin' Joe (How often God must weep at humans' folly.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough
East Coast nonsense trying to socially engineer the rest of the contry.
LA is probably bigger than the entire state of Conneticut.
55 posted on 12/11/2006 7:36:55 AM PST by Zathras
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To: LurkedLongEnough

The writer lives in the Eastern Megalopolis, where maybe you can get by without a car because everything is developed and conveniences abound in your own neighborhood.

Out west, where some of us live, things are more spread out, and public transit is fine if you don't want to actually go anywhere that's more than a mile from the bus stop or train depot.

Also, to all those "mass-transit" (read: public transit) proponents, consider this: privately owned vehicles are a form of mass transit. After all that's how most of "the masses" get around, and overall it's more efficient than buses and trains (in terms of time).

Obviously there are issues with traffic in some areas, but even with those obstacles, commuting in your own vehicle is faster and more convenient than taking the bus to the train, then another bus from the train, and then walking 3 or more blocks to your office, etc.


56 posted on 12/11/2006 7:42:38 AM PST by Disambiguator (This tagline is brought to you by the letter "S" with a slash in front of it.)
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To: LurkedLongEnough; All
THIS may be the stupidest article I have ever read, not counting anything by Jimmy Carter of the ISG, of course.
As if I would undertake the 24 mile walk to my Physicians office or the 32 mile walk to my Dentist.
The sub-moronic writer of this article may not realize that there are actually people in this country that do NOT reside in urban areas with public transportation available. Dolt writes as Dolt is.
57 posted on 12/11/2006 7:43:08 AM PST by Gideon Reader (" All of us know who the enemy is, and where the threat comes from, except for the politicians.")
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To: nyconse

you ain't kidding - of the three places I've lived in CT, everything is at least 30 mins away. And there's no way in hell I'd ride the publik transpertayshun in this state because it doesn't go anywhere I'm interested in!


58 posted on 12/11/2006 7:43:18 AM PST by Andonius_99 (They [liberals] aren't humans, but rather a species of hairless retarded ape.)
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To: wbill
It's been a few years since I've travelled it, though, hopefully it's been improved.

We were there last year...my guess is that it hasn't. If it has, I'm surprised that it could ahve been worse.

59 posted on 12/11/2006 7:44:26 AM PST by Turbo Pig (...to close with and destroy the enemy...)
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To: LurkedLongEnough

I have to go 10 miles to get to a store. I suppose I could walk.


60 posted on 12/11/2006 7:46:17 AM PST by Piquaboy (22 year veteran of the Army, Air Force and Navy, Pray for all our military .)
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