In 2015 a small group of us established a $50,000 payout for anyone who could prove that it is impossible to live without a personal car, almost anywhere in the USA. By 2022 that went up to $150,000! The ante to qualify for this payout was a minimum of $30,000 in cash. Zero people have shown up with a cash ante; I don't anticipate anyone showing up; the group bet dissolved due to inactivity.

This is because it's all excuses; people who think they NEED a car are really just attached to them for illogical reasons. The more likely reason is that most people are bullshitters, so very few humans on Earth would ever put their money where their mouth is! That was an easily recognizable fact, centuries before the Wild Wild Web even existed. Anonymity is a perfect shield from personal accountability or responsibility.

The Wild Wild Web degraded into a bastion for bullshitters to thrive within: Wherever the (proverbial) rubber meats the road, they're always absent! Turds keep coming out of their mouth but no money ever comes out of their pocket: That's the sum definition of a Bullshitter! Cash talks but bullshit walks! They cannot put their money where their mouth is because it's always full of crap.

Nonetheless, once they think hard about it, and figure out on their own, what would be proposed, and then demonstrated, in their home or neighborhood, they quietly vanish. The actual reason is they are lazy; or ignorant; or both! Everything is excuses and self-justifications. They will not part with $30,000, by putting their money where their mouth is; they want people to believe their BS: They're very rarely (if ever) challenged with put up or shut up!

Admittedly there are rare places on the North American continent where it's not a good place to live, especially if you're grocery store dependent. Now, once a person understands that grocery stores have only been around for a small fraction of our species existence, they will have to figure out on their own how the first 99.999%+ of humanity lived without them. And that may be difficult, because after all, I can easily teach Middle School kids how to live their entire lives without a car.

This (in part) explains why people think it's a good idea to live in the middle of nowhere, even as they do not know how to feed themselves, apart from a grocer. I would have recognized this as ignorant, in just seconds as a 10 year old in 1968, so I know the level of intellect I'm dealing with here. To decide to live anywhere, where a car is ones lifeline to survival, is in itself ignorant.

I'm being sincere here; I never say anything to insult anyone pointlessly. Verbally slapping someone back to reality however, is every bit as compassionate as it is to break someone's sternum while administering CPR. They'll easily recover from the verbal slap; leaving them in ignorance is just cruel, and can even be dangerous.

Once I made the commitment to live car free, I started to do research on how I'd do that. It's a lifestyle choice, and one must treat it just like that! I volitionally gave up my last vehicle in 2005. By 2015 doing so became about as easy as it could get. All things can be delivered!

Now, I built homes for a living and we hauled nothing to build them, except power and hand tools. Lumber yards delivered everything else to the job site; if we needed more I'd tell the truck driver (or call sales) and they had it out the next day.

So I knew since 1974 that I could get big stuff delivered; cheaply or sometimes free. Sears sold all major appliances then (even hot water heaters); they all were delivered to homes. We drove in a car to get groceries, and go to Kmart: But now all those supplies are delivered! I always took a school bus; I was never once driven to any school in a car! We boys rode our bikes to The Mall; back then it had a video game arcade, a food court, and girls!

To this day, it still depends on what a person wants to do, or more lovingly now, what a person is willing to compromise, environmentally or economically, in order to do anything away from home. We lived in Eastern Jackson County, MO. There was not all that much to do then there; it's like that today, and the only thing I see kids doing more of these days (that I'd do if I were young now) are skater parks: I'm 5 blocks from one now!

I needed to live where it was safe for an aging person; where the cost of living would remain low and stable; where there was decent public transportation and plenty of bike trails.

Living volitionally without a car for 2 decades, one learns how/why transit in general, works or doesn't. Well traveled, it seems that whatever mode of transport was there first, development is built–up around it, then it thins out, then ends, the farther out one goes. We see this in the US where development gets sparse, the farther one goes from the Interstate exit roads, and into more rural areas; all development is in the immediate areas of the Interstate exchange.

For rail travel, the destinations are fixed & limited. We humans like to go to new places and try new things (food; shopping; etc.). The fixed rail takes us to the same places always. Even bus routes are limited destinations. So, like any new restaurant that gets lots of business at first, it slows, and if they cannot gimmick themselves along (or are not supplemented by a chain), they close more than not.

But I believe it's mostly about the last–mile issue; you get off at a designated stop (train or bus), and then one must walk it from there; if it's too far, most do not want to do it, even in fair weather. In car–centric places, snow is plowed for the car at the expense of all other forms of mobility.

If the train/tram/light–rail/bus system, was built first, all the businesses are naturally within a walkable distance, say 3 to 4 blocks out, from the rail–line. If car roads were built first they're all over the place; to get to all those spread out businesses by fixed routes is too problematic & limited.

However, if Transit entities understood this, they'd consider last–mile transport primary in their designs and operations; a mini parking space for e–bikes & e–scooters, inside rail/bus vehicles with easy on/off. Currently in the US, buses might have an external rack for only 2 conventional bikes, and that's it; many have none! Most buses and some rail services forbid last–mile devices, some allow them but with very limited space.

In most car–centric places with public transportation as an afterthought, the majority of transit users simply cannot afford a car. Or, only because they're traveling for work into a congested city where it's just easier to use transit than traffic snarls and parking fees. A transit system will flourish, and long–term, once it can nearly or completely replace the need for a car.

I understand that the vast majority of humans are pride–conquered and ego–dominated, and as such, they cannot handle any outsider telling them how to do their job. Well, that's their take on it anyway. Thus, they will converse it by pretending to be receptive, even holding public meetings for outside input, but that's where input dies.

The next chapter is a compilation of a few letters and emails sent to The City of DSM and to its Transit Authority DART. I got no replies from any of them, but then, I did not expect it. This is Red Iowa!

The first 3 primary routes (the Big 3) for any Metro Transit System, in any Metro, is what all passenger Intermodals deploy; Ames, IA is the nearest, then Iowa City, but there's hundreds more nationally. These share a central Transit location or Intermodal, and from there, frequent city bus service to/from the (main) Airport, an Amtrak Station, and an Interstate Bus Terminal at the Intermodal. The routes coming in/out of any City that does not involve cars; obviously car drivers do not use any of these. These 3 are primary; these are necessary to even begin to consider (or call) it a Metro Transit System. There is no Metro Transit System in Polk County, IA. yet!

All other secondary bus routes are what's called Shopper Buses; these you'll find in cities half the size of DSM Metro. They take people to malls, grocers, and medical districts. Some even serve to take people to/from employment, but that's only possible if they have the needed frequency and employment location prominence. DART is not a dependable to/from employment transport option, though I'm sure some must risk using it for that.

So, I am for the discontinuation of DART, as it is, and to be replaced by an outside Transit Organization that understands how a Metro Transit System operates (again, the Big 3). Another example of the competency of an Intermodal, is the ease of bringing aboard secondary transportation devices such as bikes, and now e–bikes & e–scooters. Most Shopper Buses only have a 2–bike external rack; that's it. Many people use these powered devices in place of a motorized wheelchair, which they do not really need. Let's use my friend as one example among possible dozens of people:

I was born in the Summer of 58 (I'm old) and so was my friend. I can walk just fine, but my friend can only do a mile or so, when a heart condition begins to cause issues. There's many other similar mobility issues that any compassionate individual assumes will exist. Riding a pedal bike for too long creates the same problems. For me, pedal bikes hurt my back and butt after some time on it.

I bought my peddle bike at the DSM Bike Collective; I don't ride it as much anymore, but, you will see me buzzing around on my e–scooter. With my e–scooter I can travel with ease. I do not own or want a car; too dangerous and in too many ways to elaborate on; again, it's all about Love and compassion, or even just simple empathy.

Contacting the City of DSM will not likely produce any ripe fruit; I've tried before and they've proven me correct. They're as shortsighted as DART, who will not allow me to bring my e–scooter on board. (Surely they've got excuses but no logical reason for this: It's all about power/control for the shortsighted). They require they be folded and carried on. Obviously this is too much; I for one cannot carry mine at all, and never do, nor do I ever fold it. So, I cannot utilize DART; this elderly disabled man must ride my e–scooter year–round (burr) because of this. I only rarely DART; just to the places they go.

Evidence? Sure: I make no claims I cannot back–up in a Just courtroom! DART had a booth set–up at one of the Summer Downtown Events, and with my e–scooter, I showed their Reps how I needed to roll my e–scooter onto the bus; they had a bus parked there as a cooling center. I did so just like a wheelchair currently does, so everything is already in place. I parked it in the space for wheelchairs, then folded it down!

But that step would take–up too much time, as some units are not easy to fold, and drivers should not be allowed to leave the protected driver seat area for non–emergencies (by transit.dot.gov rules, yet to be created/enforced; I'm working on it).

The DART Reps nodded and agreed to the logic, but that changed nothing. Again, they do not have anyone in power, with the needed capacity to design–build or operate a competent functioning Metro Transit System; this explains why there's still no such entity in Polk County, IA. But I'm all for a Metro Transit System to come into the DSM Metro; that would be exciting! And usable! And noteworthy!

Whenever a non–car traveler (and non–flyer) like myself, needs to go to another city, I go to/from the Amtrak Depot or the Intermodal (DSM has neither), and quickly and easily transfer onto a Metro Transit System Bus (or Tram or Light–rail), with my standing wheelchair (e–scooter), and then out into that city. The last few miles is where I'd use my e–scooter (they're even called last–mile devices), as well as most of the time I'm in that city, with or without the use of their Metro Transit System.

Currently I'm limited to the well–designed larger Metro's (e.g. CO, WA, OR, CA, DC, NY, KC, etc). I like the DSM area, but the people here do not seem to possess the wisdom I'm accustomed to; I'm spoiled by living in designed Metro's where I never had to explain logic to any of them; here it's becoming problematic. (You all can share this freely with anyone, though I doubt it would do any good)! Visit my commercial–free site for much more relevant data and links: Micro-Mobile.org

Currently, all development ideas work outward from the paradigm of what–is–already–here! By lacking the capacity for critical thinking, which is more about original thoughts than it is about just being critical, most people simply pile upon what was here, when they got here. They seek to modify the existing world; its models of design are fairly fixed for them.

And even though there are multiple ways to do all things on Earth, most people live/die without any original thoughts or critical thinking skills or common sense. Leaving bad designs for future generations to heal, is not only pure open evil, it will cost thousands–fold more than doing it yesterday or today!

But there is really only one major problem in the current paradigm; Heavy Infrastructure! And it spawns a host of secondary & tertiary issues. If we, as a species, are going to continue to use massively large, heavy and resource intense devices, to move humans from point A–to–B, then all other things must bend to that paradigm. If not, then everything changes forward of that!

Imagine for a moment that it's illegal to have any personal vehicle with a gross weight of over 500 pounds (226 kg): Every human transportation device is some variation of a Velomobile world, and others would surely come up with even better inventions. With a buy local attitude, the need for billions of humans needing to personally visit every square mile of Earth, should be phased out of the current mind–bending system of advertisements that currently guide the followship drones.

Thus, the need for any of the current road systems would be moot. We can start over with that aspect of the human point A–to–B system. Roads would be a thing of the past; it would all be trails at that point. Snow removal? Nope! Snowmobiles, but not like those that currently exist! We would design to conform to the natural world, not keep fighting against it with fossil fuels.

As for plumbing, electrical, communications, power, and so on; that aspect of Infrastructure would have distance limits as well. Every residence would be self–contained for the most part; water & sewer would be completely different than they are now. Centralizing these things began with this premise: how do I profit from them? If profit is all there is for the human species, then yes, we're doomed for sure: We'll monetize the entire planet to exhaustion.

However, if we spend our resources on building a sustainable future for progeny, then the economic system itself would have to change to that! The reason why anything is expensive is because too many want to make a million dollars a month. They need psychological (and budget) counseling, to get at the root of why they think they need so very very much more than others; what is at the source of their ambition–driven discontent. Get those people the help they need, and the rest of us can begin to build a humane society.

Sprawl, among many other problematic societal issues, are just the outcome of this hunger–lust for more and evermore. Building a sustainable culture on Earth is rather simple; it comes down to simplicity itself. What will never happen, is a sustainable human society, wherein, way too many humans are allowed the "freedom" to be destructive, just to appease their dying egos and immature emotions. Laws will have to be passed to reflect all of this!

Still writing.

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