Here’s Roadguy’s column from the Sunday paper. If you’ve read it elsewhere, please skip on down to the comments below. Thanks.

Many people’s New Year’s resolutions are already broken by now, but Roadguy has just gotten around to formulating his. They’re all transportation-related, of course, so let’s have a look.

Resolution No. 1: Less gadgetry in the car.

Roadguy lived his whole life without a cell phone until early 2001, and he can probably live for 30-40 minutes a day in the car without talking on the phone, unless the call is directly related to whatever event he’s driving to. (Or unless he’s bored out of his mind on an empty rural interstate on a sunny day.)

On a similar technological note, if he can’t get the CD into the CD player while stopped at a stoplight, he resolves to just wait until the next red light, instead of trying to futz, shift, steer and/or merge all at the same time.

Resolution No. 2: Stopping for yellow lights.

Believe it or not, the Minnesota Driver’s Manual does not say “floor it on yellow.” Rather, it says “do not enter the intersection if you can stop safely before doing so” — and it’s safe to do so far more often than Roadguy admits.He has been trying to follow the rule the past few days, and it’s required a bit of an attitude adjustment: What do you mean I’m going to get home 35 seconds later?

Roadguy does keep a close eye on what’s directly behind him — and how fast it’s going — as he makes the split-second decision to brake or go for it. But the bonus is that, if he does come to a stop, he can pop in that CD.

Resolution No. 3: Buy a parking-meter card.

Roadguy is philosophically opposed to spending money just so he can spend more money, but he’s realized that the $5 initial charge for a parking-meter card would probably be recouped in short order. On Friday afternoon, for example, Roadguy spent $5 to park in a ramp for an hour because he didn’t have enough quarters for a meter, which would have cost him less than two bucks.

Resolution No. 4: Bike to work at least once this year.

To the hardy among us who commute by bicycle year-round, this may sound like a pretty wimpy goal, but as Roadguy noted earlier, it’s hard to cover breaking news in a sprawling metropolitan area without a car. However, with a little planning, a reduction in the amount of junk Roadguy brings to work and the securing of a backup vehicle, he could probably handle a 4-mile ride each way — and he’d probably even enjoy it.

If you have a transportation resolution to share, please do so below. And let’s hope that our leaders resolve to find more money for transportation. The more metro areas that Roadguy visits, and the more he learns about Minnesota’s shrinking pool of younger adults, the more he worries that our infrastructure is going to keep us from being the vibrant kind of place we’d like to be. Happy 2008.

This entry was posted on Sunday, January 6th, 2008 at 7:05 am and is filed under Main. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.