Dear Madam:Your Summer 2011 "In Transit" issue has a number of interesting articles on various local transit issues. But the writers all seem to be missing one thing - How to Bring Home the Bacon, that is, the groceries. Milkmen don't make house calls anymore, and grocery stores don't deliver. The person who carries his daily items in the bike saddlebags or backpack doesn't admit how heavy liquid foods like milk, juice, etc. become when one has to pedal uphill. When you walk or take the bus to the supermarket for the weekly shopping, how to get home? When the friendly bus driver leaves you off at the nearest stop to your home, how far and how many bags can you carry or do you have children big enough to help out with each one carrying something? If you call a taxi to get home, how many taxi fares per month come to more than your current car insurance? The weekly trip to the mall for non-grocery items and maybe a movie can probably be managed by bus, as long as you plan your trip so as to catch the last bus of the day going near your neighborhood (I live in one of those that don't have evening service). Some places like Home Depot will deliver for a $25 charge, but how about the "big box" places? Let's have somebody write an article about "How I Raise A Family In Olympia Without A Car" (Don't look at me - I raised my family carless through four upstate New York winters in the 1970's, and conditions then and there don't apply to here and now.) By the way, my first car back in 1956 was a Metropolitan (Editors Note: see article "Nash Metropolitan: Going Green 1950s-Style," Summer 2011 issue), which was fondly named "Toody."
Yours truly,
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