Some people had come up with ideas before the conference. On a table at the back of the auditorium was a petition from the Campaign for a Free and Clear Lakefront, which wants to tear up and sod over Lake Shore Drive. Some of us would not like to see a highway on the lakefront. Amid hollering, almost every hand in the room shot up. In contrast, a picture of a snarled tollway drew howls of derisive laughter.
Cars are the major source of air pollution.
They trash public space. And they promote a sedentary life-style, while obesity becomes a national epidemic. Most participants arrived on some form of cycle, creating an impromptu exhibition of inventive, pedal-powered vehicles in the parking spaces outside the meeting hall. From her home in northern Michigan, she said, she recently traveled the country on a book tour, collapsing her bike into the suitcase when she wished to use local transit systems or long-distance trains. Some wheeled up in recumbent bikes.