The City of Monona, a suburb on Madison’s east side, is the third community in the area to pass a smoking ban. Although Wisconsin was supposed to provide a comprehensive statewide smoking ban, the inability for legislators to develop a compromise continues to push local communities to pass their own smoking bans.

Working on the east side of town, many of my lunchtime options are in Monona. The problem is that many of those options allow smoking, despite that they have otherwise good menus. Since quitting smoking, I cannot stand cigarette smoke and will no longer patronize any place that allows smoking. With the ban coming in June 2009, I’m actually looking forward to trying out some of those places again and discovering ones I haven’t eaten at yet.

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With the price of gas over $4 per gallon in many areas of the country, it’s no surprise that people are parking their cars and finding alternative modes of transportation. A three-percent increase across the country is indicative of the situation.

For years, people preferred the automobile to trains, buses, or subways. Some probably considered that spending on these forms of transportation should be cut, especially since they lost money. Now peopel are realizing that these alternatives are more cost effective for both them and their communities, and they’re greener than even the most fuel-efficient automobile.

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