Earth Day

I was riding into work this morning, as I do every morning, when I noticed that the neighborhood was strangely busy.  On a normal day, I encounter a handful of people during my morning ride down Shoal Creek - a jogger here, a dog-walker there, and perhaps another cyclist or two.  Generally speaking, however, it is pretty quiet.  This morning, however, I noticed a great number of children and their parents out walking - to school, I assume.  How nice, I thought.  I bet their teachers encouraged them to walk to school on account of Earth Day and such.  A good idea, to be sure.  But this got me thinking about a couple of related matters.  First, why aren't there more kids out there walking to school everyday?  I mean, this is a nice neighborhood with a neighborhood elementary school; when I was that age, I walked or rode my bike to school every single day.  It's a little sad that it takes a special occasion to get kids out and about instead of hitching a ride in a car.

The other thing that occurred to me, in a slightly less cynical moment, is that if each of us could commit to only one day a week of walking, riding a bike, or using public transportation to get to work, instead of driving, how great would that be?  Yes, I understand that some commutes are longer than others and that it can be quite an inconvenience, and yes, especially in Texas, the cities themselves are set up for driving cars rather than public transit or bike commuting, but still, it's at least possible, right?  Assuming we all picked different days of the week, imagine how much less traffic there would be!  And, imagine how great it would be for so many people to get a little bit more exercise! 

Now, I realize this is one of those naive and silly Earth Day kind of ideas... but, still, it's nice to think of a city in which there is 1/5 less traffic, 1/5 less automobile-related pollution, and a lot of other folks out there commuting by foot, bike, or bus and enjoying the springtime!