urban mobility

I have a car. But I live much of my life without using it. In fact, I only drive it to haul things or to go someplace that's impossible or unwise to reach with public transportation.

I don't think this is so strange -- I live in a city, and I grew up in New York. It seems completely normal to live my life, for the most part, without a car.

However, I live in the USA, and this is considered bizarre. Granted, there are many places where you absolutely MUST have a car and without one, you'd perish. But I don't want to live in those places. I can't stand driving in dense traffic, or looking endlessly for parking spaces that aren't in tow-away zones, or trying to get out of a parking lot without being hit by a bigger car. In general, I often feel like I'm in a horrible video game when I drive. It's not fun.

I won't get into a rant here about using non-renewable resources. I don't have to...you already know.

What I don't understand is the increasing number of people moving into my city with huge cars -- people who live next to a transit hub, but drive everywhere anyway. People who would rather drive four blocks than walk. People who drive to urban events with tens of thousands of other people, with no hope of parking.

I think that maybe it's because cars are basically mobile homes --once inside the car, people feel at "home" -- no matter where the car might take them. So much at home, in fact, that they often have no place to seat their passengers because of the toys, clothes, baby carriers, food, and entertainment items strewn everywhere. They feel "safe" in their car-home in unsafe times.

I'm of the belief system that the more people you have walking on the street, the safer the streets are to walk on. (With the exception of a few horrible mob scenes, that is.) So how do you get people out of their mobile homes and onto the sidewalks again?