Cat Stevens wrote the song "Peace Train." Jackson Browne wrote the song "Running on Empty." And some mama’s boy wrote the song "The Wheels on the Bus." So here it is, the First Act’s take on getting from A to B: "Public Transportation."

Call it forward thinking to pen a song in the fall of 2005 when we thought petroleum was expensive at $2.00 per gallon. This is a song about the importance of utilizing alternative means to get around town. If you’re not going too far, do you have to drive the car?

Not that all cars are backwards, it's just that most of them are. Unless you're driving a family of five to pick up your newly adopted dog from the Humane Society in a Toyota Prius, does it make sense to burn a gallon or two of irreplaceable energy? Take a chance. Ride a bus. Hop on a train. No one will make fun of you. In fact, you may hear a small cheer from Mother Nature as you step down from the efficient people mover of your choice.

Think of the options: your feet, bicycles, a friend’s car, city buses, light rail trains, trolleys, gondolas, helicopters, hovercrafts... Any or all of these might be available to get you where you’re going. Giving up on the societal norm of owning and operating a car is the future. The half-hour-solo-car-commute does not compute.

We understand that public transportation is not readily available to everyone. Maybe your new job is thirty miles outside of the city in the middle of Suburbia. In such situations, one should think about moving to a more convenient location. By relocating to a home within five miles of your office, you'll open up a world of commuting options (we'd recommend biking). You'll save time and money, but, more importantly, you'll save gas. It's called a fossil fuel for a reason.

Public transportation operates daily and is paid for by your taxes and government funding. Running everyday, whether you ride them or not, are: PARTA, METRO, AMTRAK, BART, RTA, CTA, SARTA, and many other conveniently-acronymed operations. Also running everyday are your heart and lungs and muscles. So, please, use something more than your accelerator foot.