[lbo-talk] the petro-thusians have their moment

[Carl Remick]

>From: Jon Johanning <jjohanning at igc.org>
>
>On Sep 23, 2004, at 10:14 AM, Wojtek Sokolowski wrote:
>
>>I understand that many (if not most) Americans are too stupid and lazy to
>>figure out how to use public transit and too chicken shit to leave the
>>cocoons of their cars, but would not you expect a bona fide expert
>>supposedly trying to solve transportation problems to give a serious
>>consideration?  If they do not, there is a serious possibility that their
>>effort is nothing but a PR effort to put some window dressing, a "human
>>appearance" on the ugly face of the US capitalism.
>
>I live in a city with a pretty good public transportation system, though 
>one which continually threatens us that it will close down lines because of 
>insufficient funding. And I would never consider living in a place without 
>one. My aunt retired from the Boston area to Cape Cod, and I saw how 
>terribly inconvenienced she and other elderly residents were when they got 
>too old to be able to drive. (She volunteered to drive other elderly people 
>around until she also had to give up driving.)
>
>The trouble is that, unlike Europeans, apparently, Americans have a very 
>deep-seated urge to flee from areas of large population concentration to 
>low-concentration ones. Perhaps this is a hold-over of the old pioneer 
>longing to "light out for the territory." But it makes it much harder to 
>provide public transit for most of the population. Somehow, one would have 
>to persuade the people who fled the cities to move back; a few are doing 
>so, but the overall trend is still massively in the other direction. Makes 
>no sense to me, but I'm a very untypical American.

It seems to me that computer-assisted driving, satellite-navigation, 
guidance magnets embedded in pavement, etc. will make existing issues of 
private cars vs. mass transportation and high vs. low population density 
obsolete.  Automatic navigation will make it possible for even infirm 
drivers to drive safely.  It will also lead to cars being much cheaper -- 
smaller and more energy efficient -- because collisions would be virtually 
eliminated and there would be no safety-based rationale for large vehicles.

Carl

Carl