Thank you for your article on car-free living ("For some, life can be sweeter with no car," July 27). As someone who has lived without a car in Europe for years but seems unable to do it in Towson, I need to add one point. The United States used to have a great public transportation system until we cut it to death in the name of "efficient governance." The less public transportation service is available, the more people "need" a car.
My daughter's kindergarten is 90-minute trip by bus and on foot but 15 minutes by car. My partner couldn't get to her work at an office park in White Marsh without a car at all, unless she wants to a take a two-mile hike from the nearest bus stop after a two-hour bus trip. And I am talking each way, of course.
The automobile industry and its paid servants in Congress have worked hard to make public transportation look like a taxpayer waste. In reality, life would be cheaper, healthier and more pleasant without our dependence on this costly attachment called a car.
Thomas Jandl, Towson