Whether you begin to carpool to work, take a bus, ride your bike, or just get organized so you don't make so many trips, it's important to realize that automobiles are at once a blessing and a curse.

Perhaps the high cost of fuel today will convince more citizens to take personal action that will reduce both consumption and emissions...not to mention traffic jams and road rage!

Read "The Long Emergency" by James Howard Kunstler in the Rolling Stone. "It has been very hard for Americans -- lost in dark raptures of nonstop infotainment, recreational shopping and compulsive motoring -- to make sense of the gathering forces that will fundamentally alter the terms of everyday life in our technological society. Even after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, America is still sleepwalking into the future. I call this coming time the Long Emergency."

The Transit Coalition is a dedicated grass roots all volunteer organization that advocates a balance of bus, subway, commuter rail, light rail, bike, airport access, goods movement, physically challenged access and automobile transportation to get Los Angeles Region moving again.

Friends 4 Expo Transit are an all-volunteer group of citizens joined together to support an alternative to L.A.'s world-record traffic—a fast, comfortable, safe, high-capacity light rail transit line from downtown Los Angeles to Santa Monica. These links provide more background on the Expo Line :

http://thetransitcoalition.us/News/LAT20041204a.htm http://thetransitcoalition.us/News/SMDP20041123a.htm

Transit in L.A. has been a century-long cycle of shifting allegiances, wavering public support and battles between transit entities and political forces. Then there’s the decade-long decree that demands more buses than there are people to ride them. Read this fascinating in-depth article from Mass Transit Magazine.

USATODAY.com - Americans discover charms of living near mass transit. The last thing Alex Thacher wanted was to jump from the frying pan into the fire, from the molasses of Washington, DC, traffic to an even more gut-churning commute.

The People's Waterfront Coalition strives to seize this once-in-a-century opportunity to replace Seattle's failing viaduct with a shoreline-centered downtown that works for residents as well as visitors, native salmon and the marine ecosystems of Puget Sound.

Light rail seen as savior to Denver's congested highways

Philadelphia Transit Campaign ... The Pennsylvania Transit Coalition (PTC) is a statewide coalition of individuals and groups that seeks to improve public transit in Pennsylvania.

SeattleDOT strives to preserve connections between neighborhoods and to incorporate environmental considerations:

Read a report on the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002): http://www.usda.gov/sustainable/World%20Summit%20index.htm