Cars Let People Ignore Their Surroundings

Dear Editor,
    For at least 35 years, people have been saying that you can't appreciate Austin without a car. But people in cars don't really see Austin. They see fragments or highlights of Austin. Between highlights, they drive fast and notice very little.
    Traveling by car from point A to point B, you see A and B and ignore what lies between them. On foot or on a bicycle, you experience the space between A and B. Some parts of the journey are beautiful; some are ugly and stressful. The ugly and stressful parts are where the cars congregate.
    Traveling on foot or by bicycle is slower than car travel. But the experience is much richer and more connected. Unfortunately, most people in Austin travel by car and fail to notice the continuing degradation of the parts of Austin that lie between the highlights. This degradation is now reaching the highlights themselves. Every special event in the park makes the park ugly and stressful with cars. Our green areas are covered with parking lots full of cars. This is not necessary. It happens because people in cars don't notice the damage they're doing. Cars let people ignore their surroundings.
    People won't really experience Austin and feel like doing something about the awful parts until more people here walk and bicycle for transportation. For less than the proposed cost of the Red Line, we could have sidewalks on both sides of every city street and all the improvements recommended in the Austin Bicycle Plan. We could have a truly connected city. People need to explore and experience all of Austin – not just highlights.