|
WebWord Weblog Posting Posting Date: June 09, 2002 Without a Car in the World -- "They had seen the devastation from our architecture defined by the exit ramp. They knew intuitively, if not literally, the design formulas that I recited from the podium: that every motor vehicle required an ancillary seven spaces to hold it at rest (parking) or in motion (driving). They realized that big chunks, in fact some 30 percent of our cities, were hardtopped in service to the car's voracious appetite." (Comments: What is it like to live without a car? How much has the motor vehicle impacted the designs of world?)
Reader Comments...
Dating rituals to fast food, and the rise of suburbia and Jack Lessinger's penturbia and the 'life style' that goes with it. Internet as highway. And let us not forget the American time style of "McTime", five minutes for most anything, but less than completely satisfying. Posted by: (the other)JS on June 9, 2002 04:48 PM
"What is it like to live without a car?" I've never owned a car. Currently I'm two miles outside town, a fairly pleasant half hour walk mostly past open fields. I can take a taxi/bus/train if the weather's really bad or I want to go further afield. I'd quite like to cycle but most roads don't feel quite safe enough. I do somewhat resent the vast expanding areas devoted to cars. I can fully understand why people want/need their cars, of course, particularly as public transports pretty poor here in the UK. I'm bound to get one eventually, and I'm sure I'll love it and drive it everywhere. And gripe about parking. And the price of petrol. And traffic jams, roadworks, cones, cyclists, pedestrians, buses, and all the other things drivers go on about. And I'll probably stop noticing those ugly expanding areas of tarmac and concrete.
No car and feeling rightous. Okay. No roads, then? Hardly. You may not have to drive to the store, but the goods still need to reach the retail outlets that are close enough reach via walking. That means trucks. Don't own a car, but ride in cabs? Still need streets, then, don't we. The only places mass transit works are dense urban areas, like Manhattan. These places are the exceptions in the US, not the rule. Distance, weather, infirmities ... the car is an answer to these transportation issues. Posted by: mcw on June 10, 2002 09:53 AM
Righteous? Just giving my experience of life without a car, and expressing concern about going too far in catering to drivers' needs at the expense of other things. I'm certainly not anti-car and, like I said, I'll probably get one at some point.
I'll never live more than 10 minutes away (by car) from my workplace. If I must make "the choice," then where I live is more important than where I work. Right now I drive for 10 minutes along pastures, forested mountains and beaches. When the roadway is congested and the traffic moves slow (you know, making me 30 seconds late), I may accidentally look out my side windows. That's depressing. I know I'm about to spend 8 hours in front of a keyboard when I could be rolling in wild grasslands soaking in the sun. You city-dwellers are soooooo lucky. Posted by: on June 10, 2002 05:36 PM
The problem with paving (3 fact sheets) Carfree.com (site to accompany a book, 'Carfree Cities')
Home | Moving WebWord | Cool Books | Hot Web Sites
URL: http://webword.com/weblog/ ©1998-2005 by WebWord.com. All rights reserved. |