Help yourself and Earth; get out of car

I would like to thank you for your editorial on Tuesday, June 15 regarding "What we all can do about the oil spill."

However, I was surprised that you did not encourage your readers to walk and bicycle more for routine trips.

According to the 2001 Nationwide Survey of Household Travel by the U.S. Census Bureau (most recent data), 41 percent of all trips that Americans make are two miles or less in length.

Yet 89 percent of those trips are made in motor vehicles. Imagine the pollution benefits, health benefits and wallet benefits across the country if the statistic were reversed and 89 percent of those trips were made on foot or by bike.

As a citizen who commutes by bike from March through November (and sometimes December!), I can attest to all three benefits.

It's time that we all consider alternate ways of getting to our job or to the train stop, to church, to shopping and to other errands in ways that reduce our dependence on fossil fuels.

Ralph J. Banasiak

Greater Palatine Bicycle Task Force

Palatine