This era is defined by what we want. How much joy do you get out of a car rather than what you could get with public transit or a bicycle? Really, you could want a rocket to the moon, but does that mean you should have one? Apart from the obvious pollution that cars have and resources they...

^^ I'd say that in the ideal world, places like Germany would still have significantly lower auto usage and ownership. People need to take a step back and realize that most of them don't need a car to go about their daily business. It just takes a change in direction of how cities, towns and...

I could imagine Toronto having a similar density. South of Eglinton really has potential to be a huge downtown strip like Manhattan, and you could also get a big urbanized strip along the western lakeshore all the way from the Don to the end of Humber Bay. The city might have to work towards...

And waiting in traffic on the DVP are part of the commute as well. Unless you live and work exceptionally far from Go stations, then you should be able to pretty consistently do better than people stuck in gridlock. I've tried, and I can get around just slightly slower than other people on...

^^ And taking the Go train almost anywhere during rush hour is much, much faster than driving.

How bout Imperial Japan? The Japanese were notorious for Kamikaze warfare, and plenty of people around the world had the same view of Japan that many people see of Muslims today. But after over 90 years of peace, very few people will say that there's something built into Japanese culture...

Exactly. The big problem I think will occur is that people will start to worry less about mass transit and efficient development as rush hour becomes less of a problem. As long as we're not losing billions of dollars in gridlock, there's no problem with continuing to live out in the suburbs...

No, here's a problem. These people were psychos. If someone came into your house and murdered your family while quoting the bible and saying that he was a messenger of god, would you demand that churches in your community show some respect and even stop a week of service, let refusing a new...

We've been through this before. It's not so much Soviet banners as it is Karl Marx, and you're not waving him in front of their face, more having a seminar on him and communist ideals at the local library. When you say the Islamic community worldwide, you're talking about people in the Middle...

Am I actually the only one who really hates like architecture like this?! It looks terrible to me.

But they're interesting filler. One of the things that I think the show does so well is balancing character plots with the current episode plot, and then intertwining the two.

Again, people need to be more responsible. I'd be all for looser alcohol restrictions if parents actually made sure their kids weren't being idiots, or people made better sure themselves and others aren't DUI. Putting alcohol in government control at least makes it slightly harder for people...

Speaking of ultra right wing zionist types, I've noted that on the list of people barred from entering the UK, there are actually more American white supremacists than there are Islamic extremists. There are also two (I believe) Jewish extremists.

Transit that takes 2-3 hours? Where?? All I see is transit that'll get you where you want in an hour and a half. Really. The longest trip on the Go train takes 1:40, unless you're going from Hamilton to Durham. And that's from Barrie. Barrie. Your average Go trip will be under an hour...

That's actually an interesting take on it, greenleaf. However, I don't know what Lower Manhattan's like either, so for all I know it could be the exact opposite, but it makes sense. Not that that'll stop people. This is the most idiotic thing I've heard all day, possibly all week. Really, you...

The above is true, but with all the arguments that sound like that, I'm wondering why a suicide attack is seen as such a bad thing. The IRA was a part of an armed insurgency and preformed acts of terrorism throughout the British Isles, but for some reason they just don't cut it in comparison to...

Yes, but the value of a car will decline steeply across their decade or two lifetime, meaning a lot of money lost by the owner. I have my doubts that it's as low as $250 a year. EDIT: Still, if the car were absolutely free, it'd still be of similar cost to most suburban drivers to just use Go...

^^ For sure you can get much nicer higher end bicycles. But that $800 is a rough average estimate, seeing's how you can get a bicycle at WalMart for $100 (or something insanely low like that.) I do trust wikipedia for just about everything :P But, those are just vehicle lifetimes. A car could...

Yes, but it's currently way harder than if you could buy alcohol at any old convenience store. People as a whole need to be more mature around alcohol, but teenagers are especially at risk when it comes to being stupid with it. So anything that makes it harder for irresponsible teens to get...

Okay, but then there's a big problem that we don't have that many old things. You may have an old car, but plenty of people don't, and will end up buying a new car within a decade at the most. Compare that to $800 spent on a quite good bicyle that'll last you a decade, or $120 on a metropass...