I live in Car Country, USA. San Diego has only developed a light rail system in the last few decades, and it still does not go to where a lot of folks live or would like to go. Gas prices here  are among the highest in California, and California's gas prices  are amongst the highest in the country.

Driving habits may change, but for now it's still about the commute.

At Wells Fargo Museums, one of the points we make about journeys by stagecoach is that the travelers often ended up in relationships with their fellow riders — widows finding new husbands is the example most cited. Recently, my wife and I have noticed something that is new to us because we have started to take mass transit  after so many years commuting by car. You don't see people being courteous often at 65 mph — you see the obverse.

While on the San Diego Trolley  two days ago, Janet observed a fellow passenger give up his seat to an elderly woman and, after she exited, offer the same seat to another passenger. Recently, when I was on Muni  in San Francisco, a young man escorted an elderly woman onto a packed train, while the driver patiently waited. This was, apparently, the most natural thing in the world to all of them.

My father, during the oil embargo of 1973 , decided it was his duty to drive to work less, and walked ¾ of a mile to the bus stop. He liked riding on the bus so much he kept it up till he retired.

One day a passenger he regularly sat with broke down in tears as they headed home. He told my father that he was dying of cancer and had no one he could turn to take care of his teenage daughter. He asked if my father could look after his daughter, and my father said he would.

Years later there were plenty of tears of gratitude at this young woman's wedding, which my folks attended. The beauty of it was that by opening their lives to another person, they did themselves a great favor. (I especially enjoyed the fact that this girl had the tact of a wolverine  and punctured many of my mother's conceits with devastating efficiency!)

Car culture is not going away soon, but we may find something as we go back to a world of traveling within our community, not simply barreling through it. This phenomenon of civility, it seems to me, shouldn't be a phenomenon, but a reality.

If higher gas prices force us out of our solitary commutes, I can see that coming to pass.