"The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in return I possessed “infinite riches” in what would have been to motorists “a little room.” The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it “annihilates distance.” It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given… A modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventure than his grandfather got from traveling ten."

C.S. Lewis, Surprised by Joy. This is one of the reasons I love biking and walking places, even for short distances: without a car, travel is a conscious choice, and requires a degree of planning and forethought that car-based transportation lacks. (via beenthinking, via mills)