Well, it’s an understandable wish that we would want to keep our happy motoring system going, because we have invested so much in it, and it’s almost inconceivable to most Americans that we would have to do without it. But I think the truth of the matter is that the automobile and all of the things associated with it are going to be a diminishing presence in our lives, whether we like it or not.
And what disturbs me—actually, this is a symptom of our even larger inability to have a coherent discussion about our problems in this country. As you go around the country, what you realize is the only thing that we’re talking about is how we’re going to run the cars by some other means than gasoline or diesel fuel. And to me, this is really a tragic thing, because we have to talk about a lot of other things.
Last night, I gave a lecture at Rensselaer Polytechnic, and one young foreign student—he was from India, actually—got up and was going on at some length about all the technological means for producing new transportation systems and new elegant ways of getting people from point A to point B. And my response to him was that the one thing that we’re never talking about is walkable cities or walkable neighborhoods.
And it doesn’t require any heroic new technologies or new discoveries. In fact, it is, when all is said and done, absolutely the most pleasant way to live and to get around. Anybody who’s spent more than an hour and a half in the center of Paris understands this—or for that matter, a dozen other European cities.
I go around, and every college lecture I give, there’s invariably, inevitably, somebody who gets up and says, “I got a brand new Prius.” Congratulations. “Pin a medal on me. Give me a brownie point.” And then I have to sort of disillusion them and tell them… The problem in America is not that we’re driving the wrong kind of cars, per se.
The trouble in the United States is we’re driving incessantly. We’re driving every kind of car there is, incessantly. And we’ve got to find a way out of the incessant motoring and a way to live without it, and a happy way to live without it—not a punishment way to live without it, but a way to be happy and do it. And it means, really, a completely different paradigm for everyday life.
–James Howard Kunstler on the Kunstlercast, April 14, 2008
on Jul 2nd, 2008 at 12:14 pm
Amen. Cars are so not the way of the future. Not even Priuses (which, hello, are still dependent on fossil fuels. They don’t run on magic, people).
on Jul 2nd, 2008 at 12:37 pm
Great post. And if we all walked or cycled most places, imagine the impact it would have on America’s obesity problem!
on Jul 3rd, 2008 at 10:02 pm
There is another problem that is a factor in creating walkable neighborhoods. The people. If you can create a neighborhood such as those being developed from scratch or redeveloped with a great deal of money behind it, then it’s quite feasible to have walkable neighborhoods such as you describe.
However, many of the older neighborhoods that don’t get the attention of redevelopers (and frankly shouldn’t so that the physical character doesn’t change) have changed demographically in ways that are frequently undesirable. They used to be very walkable. I should know. I live in one that used to be that way, but no more. Due to their Balkanizing into separate ethnic enclaves, combined with drastic cultural behaviors and morals differences, along with a probable sigificant percentage of illegals who are primarily interested in staying under the radar, returning those areas to the types of walkable neighborhoods envisioned is going to be somewhere between slim and none. And slim just left town.
It would appear that the best we can hope for is a mix of the two. Walkable neighborhoods and larger areas where it’s feasible, various forms of public transportation to serve both the new areas and as many of the older areas as possible and the status quo regarding cars in all other areas. What would be the end result of this type of mix? At least a noticable and possibly significant reduction in the number of cars on the road. But will we ever wind up with something that looks like the center of Paris. Probably not. Frankly, I hope not for one very simple reason. We’re not Paris, France. Whatever we wind up with should be something that works for us and also looks like us.
Just my two cents. Whether or not I get any change back is up to you.