Getting real

EDITOR: I can appreciate why cyclists such as Marsha Taylor ("Get out of car," Letters, Monday) tell us to abandon our reliance on cars. What I can't understand is whether riders such as she honestly believe this is a possibility.

Let's be realistic. Could a construction worker with all of his or her tools be expected to make it to a remote site on a bus? Could a mother safely take her small children and their backpacks, lunches, etc. to a school two miles away on a bicycle? The idea of a firefighter on the night shift having to take a bus and then a bicycle to the firehouse is ridiculous.

Taylor would like to see higher gas prices as an incentive to move us out of our cars. I can only think of what this would mean to those who commute to work in distant areas not served by buses. Tax gas more? Think of how that would hurt the minimum-wage worker who desperately needs that job. Does Taylor really expect them to take three hours cycling unsafe streets to and from work, come rain or shine?

It's self-righteous words such as Taylor's that make me tired when once again I hear how guilty we should feel behind the wheel.

HOLLY J. PIERCE

Santa Rosa