I drive my car too much. I need more exercise and I need to stop contributing to the environmental problems that cars cause.

What’s deterred me from getting behind the wheel recently is that my car needs some repairs, and I think it’s going to set me back a few hundred dollars – money I don’t have right now.

This is actually perfect, since I’ve been meaning to stop relying on the car so much. I live a 40-minute walk away from where I work, and if I walk less than two minutes away from my back door, I can catch a bus that will take me pretty much anywhere I could really want to go in the city.

So I’ve been thinking a lot recently about the way I move. At The Uniter, we’ve decided to do the same thing for our annual urban issue, and explore the ways Winnipeggers move around in the city.

From trains, trucks and cars, to bikes, buses and Segways, our special feature on transportation (pages 11 to 14) has it all. In “Playing catch-up with transit,” Kristy Rydz explores the difference between Bus Rapid Transit and Light Rail Transit, and looks at what the city is doing to catch up with the likes of Calgary and Vancouver in terms of transportation (page 11).

Meanwhile, for those who do commute by car, Samuel Swanson interviewed some professionals who make their living driving around the city and asked them for some traffic tips to help you out (“Cutting corners around town,” page 11).

On pages 12 and 13, we look back at how the railroad shaped Manitoba as we know it today. Robert Galston makes the case for a limited-access freeway that rings the city on page 14 (“How a freeway could help downtown”), and Matt Austman argues that Winnipeg Transit’s free downtown bus could be so much more.

Also related to the theme of transportation, but elsewhere in the issue, is Ethan Cabel’s report on a recent symposium in Winnipeg that looked at the future of trucking (page 3); Andrew McMonagle’s argument that your thumb is a great ticket to anywhere (“Hitchhike your way to happiness, page 9”); and the incomparable J. Williamez’s dissection and solution of all your transportation concerns (page 23).

As always, we want to know what you think about this or any of the other issues we’ve published over the past eight months. E-mail your questions, comments, statements, outbursts and love letters to [email protected].

Speaking of transportation, I just bought the first bike I’ve owned in too many years to count. My brother Thomas rides with a group known as the Fort Garry Bike Club every Tuesday night, and one of the members sold me his old winter bike.

My brother, who has become something of a bike expert over the past few years, tells me I’ll need to invest about $300 to replace some parts and get the bike tuned up.

I’m about to get paid, and it’s almost my birthday, so I’ll have some extra money to spend.

Maybe that creates a dilemma. I could spend a few hundred dollars repairing my car. Or, I could spend a few hundred dollars repairing my bike.

I think I know what I’m going to do.

Published in Volume 64, Number 25 of The Uniter (April 1, 2010)