Not to interrupt the discussion, but here are a few more pictures:

There you're right. The amount of idiotic, stupid, bad smelling, etc.people in public buses, trams or railways sucks me.

When I started my job in the early 90ies, at first I took a bus and the subways in my home-town Hannover. After was nerved by the other people, I took my bicycle. 10 kilometers in the morning, 10 kilometers in the evening. no problem (Hannover is flat, no hills at all anywhere).

Later, when I moved to the town of Dortmund, I had 17 km to my work. There I used the car (ca.20 minutes, if everything was going right). For a bicycle (resp.for me )the hills were to steep. With bus and subway I needed minimum 1:05 hours one way.

Now, since we live on the countryside, with a distance of 65 km to work, only the car is possible. With public transport (bus, railway AND subway) I would need min 2 1/2 hours (one way!)

Since a few months I have a fight with my boss. I want to have a home-office. I'm fucked up with the lot of driving. A home-office is possible, but my direct boss don't like it.
My personal phase with friendly and honestly presented, founded arguments is gone. No I'm acting stubborn. This is not really helpful too, so I've just started terroristic behaviour. I can hold on raisin' hell for a long time, as long, until by boss will have learned to accept my desire.

Within such a short time and short distance the car (engine and heating) won't be warm. Except you have something like this:
http://www.eberspaecher.com/servlet/PB/menu/1003710_l2/index.html
- like me in my Omega. It's really a great thing

Well sometimes he has a legetimate reason, like he has swim practice or something after school and can't take the bus home. But if he drives just becuase he "wants" to like we did today, then she genetrally does not approve. Next time we will hide it from her better, as she is not usually awake when we leave in the morning and won't really notice the car gone during the day (when there are seven of them one or two missing is not very noticeable )

Why did your brother buy a parking space if your mom's going to get mad when he drives to school?

There is a family of kids on my street whose parents do that. But the thing is, they aren't even driving them to school, they are driving them to the bus stop (which is about 1000 feet away from their house) Every day when I'm standing and waiting for the bus, their green Dodge Caravan pulls up, parks on the side of the street, then waits there and idles until the bus comes (which wastes even more fuel). There's another kid that sometimes pulls up in a blue Lincoln Continental, and another in a gold Toyota Corolla. All of which live within 1/4 of mile from the bus stop, yet their parents drive them anyway. Meanwhile I (who live further away than all of those other people) have to walk (my parents won't drive me becuase they think it's wasteful and pointless) and stand there to wait, not sit in a car like they do. The only reason I can think of to do that is if it's really cold out, which I can understand as my parents drive me and let me wait in the warm car too when it's like that.

However, today was a little different than most days. I really didn't want to ride the bus again this morning. So my brother and I drove to school in the car (as he has bought a parking space in the school lot). When we got home, my mother made a big stink about it. She said it was pointless and wasted gas and that the bus could have taken us for free, plus my brother doesn't even usually buy the gas, so it's money out of their pockets. To his credit though, we did stop at the gas station and put gas in the car on the way home, even if it was only becuase the needle was below the "E" and my brother did put only one gallon in it (he's quite stingy)

But my point is, it's not very nice to take the bus all the time. Sometimes a car is just easier and more comfortable.

@G-Mann: this lazyness and the idea, to use always the cars, is getting less, since the fuel prices were increased in the last months.
Especially in the towns, I've the impression, that there are less cars on the road than, for example, last year or half year ago.

No it's not more efficient, he doesn't use it as much.

Most people have a certain amount of necessary driving to do, but in England a lot of people go on about unnecessary car use, for example parents driving kids to school who live only a mile (or less) away. And politicians keep wanting people to use public transport but except in big cities like London with advanced public transport systems, generally people are just too lazy to get the bus (every time they do surveys, people pretty much say they'd only get on a bus if there was a bus stop more or less on their doorstep) or they seem to think they are too good for it. But the thing is most small towns don't have very good transport systems so it's understandable why most people just jump in the car to go to the shops and such. I mean I do this myself a lot of the time (but sometimes I get the bus into town).

I remember reading a letter the editor in the newspaper, where the writer said that his Chevrolet suburban was more efficient than his neighbour's Toyota Prius, because he would only drive his suburban once or twice a week, almost always with several people in it, while his neighbour would drive his Prius to the convience store down the street and such.

So actually with your SUV you pollute quite less than many people having a small car and who use it everyday