I Got Your Ride Sharing Ride Here

Fluff Department over at the P-G:

City Councilman Bill Peduto gave up the keys to his black Mini Cooper yesterday, joining 16 others in taking the "low-car diet" that is being promoted by Zipcar in 12 cities nationally...

Mr. Peduto said he replanned his week.

"Monday and Tuesday, I will ride-share with Dan [Gilman, his assistant]. Wednesday and Thursday, I'll take the bus, and Friday is the bike" that he dusted off and had retuned. For bike day, he said, "I changed all my Friday meetings so they are in my district."

Not to belittle the need for Americans to stop suckling from the teat of the Automobile industry, but it's not like Otis is going to have a whole lot of trouble here. I mean, if you look at his neighborhood (Point Breeze - without giving away his home address) it has a pretty decent score at Walkscore.com, and if you look at where he *really* lives (Mardi Gras), it has a very walkable score. Now, setting aside all my problems with Walkscore.com, it seems that Otis will actually have a really easy time at not using his car.

What would really be challenging would be if he was a single, low-income parent in, say, Fairywood, and then see how easy it would be to survive.

Perhaps it's not Bill's fault that he's Mayor of Shadyside, but I think it serves to illustrate the disparity that we have in the City, and may prompt people to question both urban design and the disbursement of service to all residents.