Woman rides bus

While we support Chrissie Hynde and the campaign to ensure that public transport in Akron is properly funded and accessible to all, we're not entirely convinced that her publicised bus trip is quite the way to go about things.

After all, going "woo-hoo, look at me - I'm on a BUS for charity" doesn't exactly suggest that going by bus is a normal, everyday event for Hynde. People who travel the bus every day don't exactly issue press releases about it. It's like a slightly-less-cringeworthy version of those celebs who sleep out on the streets for a night to raise "awareness" of homelessness.

And, although we believe in public transport with every fibre of our being, we're not sure that Hynde's quote makes much sense, either:

If you feel you have to have a car, you feel trapped," she said, adding that people who rely only on cars "forget what it is to walk and enjoy the city."

The second half, yes, unquestionably. But do car owners really feel trapped? We think she probably meant something less soundbitey - along the lines of 'in a city with no public transport, if you can't afford a car, you feel trapped', but instead she wound up making it sound like one of the few unquestionable positives of car ownership - the power to go anywhere tarmac and gasoline prices will let you - is outweighed by the car ownership itself.