the first step is admitting you have a problem?

[psocoptera]

Hi, my name is Psocoptera, and I'm a car abuser.

I started using car two months ago, in a clearly defined context. I thought I had it under control. I thought I could keep it to that setting, you know? But almost from the start my habit was creeping out of those limits. I started using car socially, telling myself I was still being responsible if someone else was there. Then those errands "on the way home" - if it was okay, what was "just one more stop." I found myself using car to cover up when I was having problems - if I was running late car could get me where I needed to be. But it just made things worse, enabling my procrastination. I let car substitute for healthy habits and found excuses to use car even when I didn't need to, like bad weather, or feeling exhausted. I started to feel like, why should I ever do it the hard way, if I could use car. If I keep this up, I'm going to be using car for the sake of using car. Using it not just routinely, but recreationally.

ButIdroppedofflibrarybookswithout45minutesofwalkingintherainanditwasniiiiice.

Comments

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

Vroom vroom!

[creed-of-hubris.livejournal.com]

The first step to recovery is to admit you have a problem and seek help from a higher power, a.k.a. the mass transit system.

[ccommack]

Curtatone Hails State's Historic Green Line Decision

Mayor Says Extension Will Revitalize Union Square, East Somerville, Give Residents the Transit Service They Deserve

SOMERVILLE – Mayor Joe Curtatone earlier this week lauded the state’s decision to extend the Green Line into Somerville, saying the move was long overdue for Somerville residents and predicting dramatic economic growth for the entire East Somerville/East Cambridge region...

...Four different sets of train tracks carrying eight different rail lines slice through Somerville neighborhoods but the city has only one stop – the Red Line station in Davis Square. The state agreed to extend the Green Line to Somerville and Medford as part of a Big Dig-related agreement made with environmentalists in the 1980’s. Recently, state officials, citing cost considerations, re-assessed each of the remaining projects to ascertain which were cost-efficient and which would yield the clean air benefits necessary under the agreements and under federal law. It also took into consideration the economic development potential of each project.

A report released earlier this month by the MBTA’s own consultants revealed that the Green Line extension would yield 30,000 more transit trips per day and would cut vehicle miles by 64,000 per day. It also showed the extension, which would begin at Lechmere station and would run along only about four miles of existing lines to West Medford, would have extremely low costs per mile...

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I'm not sure what I think about this. On the one hand, I don't typically support new pubtrans projects; on the other hand, Boston is one of the few places where pubtrans actually works, so this particular expansion might actually be reasonable. We'll see, I guess.

[emsariel.livejournal.com]

What makes you wary of new pubtrans projects? I'm certainly not blindly accepting of them, but I think I start off hearing about them with some measure of enthusiasm. Even New York could use more/better pubtrans.

[cereph.livejournal.com]

lol

[rebeccapaul.livejournal.com]

Watch out... You might feel the compulsive need to move to the New Jersey suburbs or buy an SUV.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

I *drive* an SUV. It is a small SUV, but it is one.

New Jersey seems less likely though.

[emsariel.livejournal.com]

This is exactly how I felt some time into getting my car. I carpooled to work the first few years I was there, and when that wasn't around I'd use pubtrans despite the trip into the suburbs. Then I got a car and, for lots of very solid reasons that I could find, I wound up driving --by myself-- many or most days. I'd be out in the office late, or I'd want to go pick things up on the way home, or I was running late in the morning, or etc. etc.

I have very mixed feelings about that... it took me half as long to drive out as to take the buses, and the weather is less an issue. On the other hand, it was only me using the gas and making/facing traffic, and I couldn't do anything driving like I could read/play games/think/plan gaming while on the bus.