sanders@menlo70.UUCP (Rex Sanders) (08/24/83)
From The Peninsula Times Tribune, 8/23/83: "The City Council voted unanimously Monday to require showers in medical, educational, and office buildings of at least 10,000 square feet and in restaurants and bars of 25,000 square feet and larger. "In the past, the city has encouraged putting showers in new construction by making it a condition of building approval. That practice was informal, however. "[councilwoman Ellen] Fletcher said she hopes the new law will encourage workers to ride bikes to work to decrease the amount of car traffic in the city." I would like to add another point. I don't see much difference between requiring showers and bike lockers in new buildings, and requiring a certain number of parking spaces per square foot or whatever. Requiring parking spaces is a very common practice (in California, at least), and nearly everyone I know supports this practice. Actually, an argument can be made for *restricting* the number of parking spaces new buildings may have as a way of encouraging people to use other ways to get to work. I believe the EPA tried to get LA to do something like this in the early 1970's to help reduce automobile caused air pollution. You can guess how popular that idea was!
rh@mit-eddie.UUCP (Randy Haskins) (08/25/83)
It's just the spoiled, pampered society we have created. Since becoming a poor college student and living in an city (Boston) with a semi-reasonable transit system, I don't own a car. But I really ENJOY biking to work daily (15-20 minutes). It's about the only real exercise I get regularly. I will probably try to do it long into the winter after I should have stopped for safety reasons. Why? I just get a feeling of superiority over people in cars when I think of how much their polluting the atmosphere and how many 'technotrons' it takes to build and maintain a car. Not to mention that they cause a traffic jam. (In rush hour Boston, I'll race you through 10 miles of busy roads, and win.) As far as needing showers, I just underdress for the temperature, so I don't sweat as much. Yes, I have rented a car for moving on a couple of occasions. I will admit that cars are a necessary evil (sometimes). I would be in favor, however, of NO cars ever being sold, but they could be rented from rental agencies. How do you like that, sports fans? -- Randwulf (Randy Haskins); Path= genrad!mit-eddie!rh or... rh@mit-ee (via mit-mc)