{"id":212605100,"date":"2011-09-27T16:58:20","date_gmt":"2011-09-27T16:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=212605100"},"modified":"2011-09-27T16:58:20","modified_gmt":"2011-09-27T16:58:20","slug":"live-free-or-drive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=212605100","title":{"rendered":"Live free or drive."},"content":{"rendered":"<p>From the Washington Post:<br \/>\nDear Dr. Gridlock:<br \/>\nA mutant species emerged last century: Homo automobilus accompanied by a reign of traffic. Particularly in the United States, we have evolved into human hybrids encased in tons of metal, glass and plastic. And, we have designed the landscape around that physique.<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nSounds good \u2014 so you would think communities would want to promote more biking rather than expand roads and put up obstacles, like \u201cDismount before crossing\u201d signs or having to press a button (often broken) to operate the traffic signal.<br \/>\n&gt;&gt;[B&#8217; Spokes: Let me emphasize the often broken with no program for systematic repair. You have to call it in to get these things fixed (311 in the city and good luck finding the number for elsewhere). If there was a pedestrian crash does anyone look to see if the nearest ped button actually works? I doubt it but if there was a crash due to a malfunctioning light you bet they would fix that. But ped lights who cares if they work or not? Just deal with it seems to be the mantra of the areas with really high pedestrian fatality rates.]<br \/>\n&#8230;<br \/>\nMuch of law enforcement is concerned with traffic. In the United States, according to 2009 statistics, an average of 93 people a day died on roadways. A car is a deadly weapon, and we have designed our lives around it.<br \/>\nAlso, the car-oriented environment discourages walking and biking because of safety issues resulting in the growing problem of obesity.<br \/>\nIt\u2019s hard to imagine a world without cars, but oil is finite, so cars and other products based on oil are ultimately unsustainable. While we still have oil, we need to prepare for the post-oil world.<br \/>\nLive free or drive.<br \/>\n\u2014 Joan Grey, Arlington<br \/>\n<!--more--><br \/>\n.<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/commuting\/can-we-slay-the-car-monster\/2011\/09\/23\/gIQActNKrK_story.html\">https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/local\/commuting\/can-we-slay-the-car-monster\/2011\/09\/23\/gIQActNKrK_story.html<\/a>oldId.20110927165820428<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>From the Washington Post: Dear Dr. Gridlock: A mutant species emerged last century: Homo automobilus accompanied by a reign of traffic. Particularly in the United States, we have evolved into human hybrids encased in tons of metal, glass and plastic. And, we have designed the landscape around that physique. &#8230; Sounds good \u2014 so you &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/?p=212605100\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Live free or drive.&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"1","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-212605100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biking-elsewhere"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212605100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=212605100"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212605100\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=212605100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=212605100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wp.baltimorespokes.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=212605100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}