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Dark Age Ahead Tidbits 3
Not TV or illicit drugs, but the automobile has been the chief destroyer of American communities. Highways and roads obliterate the places they are supposed to serve... Along came sterile housing tracts set in isolating culs-de-sac...
Maybe it is my career speaking, but I do not agree with this assessment. I can see claiming the automobile (through dependance on foriegn oil) is destroying the economy and environment, but American communities?! If nothing else, the automobile, highways, and culs-de-sac have improved communites.
- Automobiles allow communities to continue to grow both in population and culture. Without automobiles, young adults would not go off to college and entertainment venues would have the always have the same acts. The automobile has allowed communities to gain knowledge and culture from other communities. The automobile has helped communities improve.
- Highways provide the necessary connection between communities for the above to work. This reminds me of a SDDOT commercial: [camera view of inside a car] A family is driving somewhere (possibly on vacation) and the ride appears rough (everyone is bumping around inside the car). A comment is made about not knowing where they are. [camera pans out] The car is traveling across an empty pasture/grassland, nothing but rolling hills in sight. A narrator breaks in with a comment about the necessarity of roads and the function of SDDOT.
- Culs-de-sac separate neighborhoods from busy roads, highways, and commercial/industrial zones.
3 comments:
Roads will continue to be important in the future dark ages too. You may have heard of a guy called the "Road Warrior"? He didn't get that name by hiking deer trails, I can tell you that right now.
I think that blaming the coming Dark Ages on the automobile is being somewhat sensationalistic. The United States is simply too big to support an effective means of public transportation. Therefore, what does the author present as a solution?
I do agree that we should be pursuing alternative fuel methods to reduce our dependence on oil. I personally would love to own a hybrid vehicle, but I simply cannot afford one because they are so ridiculously expensive.
Also, here's an interesting tidbit that most people are not aware of. More pollution is generated in the United States by the energy consumed by houses and businesses for heating/cooling/lighting/etc. than by automobiles. Thus, the automobile has been used as a scapegoat by environmentalists when in reality, it is not even the main contributor to pollution.
Yes, Andy, I agree. A lot of energy can be saved by replacing bad insulation in walls and badly made windows windows. Additional savings in energy usage are found by turning down the heat in your home at night and while at work. Likewise with air conditioning.
I'm sure if a major portion of America didn't have the "keeping up with the Jones'" disease, then energy use would go way down. (Bigger homes take more energy to heat/cool, and SUVs are terrible gas hogs).
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