Claire, Your story sounded so familiar. I too grew up in northern NJ (Paterson to be exact). As you stated the bus service was terrific so our family never owned a car. Walking was a way of life and even if we took the bus to school in the morning, many of us walked home in the afternoon. We also did a lot of bike riding. When I was married and moved to Calif. there was so little transportation where we lived you needed a car to go anywhere. The same is true here in Maryland and as a result we and all our children and their children are always in a car. We do the most walking when on vacation....it so beneficial to your cholesterol level to walk. When we returned from a month of walking in Europe my HDL level (good cholesterol) went up to 98 and my doctor could not believe it. When we credit the Europeans for less heart disease we forget how much they walk and ride bikes in all the countries and get good exercise. Betty