[lbo-talk] Europe not that different from America, was petro-thusians etc.

James Heartfield Heartfield at blueyonder.co.uk
Thu Sep 23 14:28:28 PDT 2004


Some posters seeking to illustrate the supposed wickedness of the yankee consumer are tempted to imagine exemplary behaviour on the part of Europeans. But this is not so.

So for example

Jon writes


> 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."

And Wojtek

"It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that the best way to improve transit and fuel efficiency is to increase the number of people per unit of energy consumed, and the solution to this is a no brainer practiced in all countries except the fucking United States (may it disintegrate into chaos!), and known as public transportation. "

But the trend in Europe - and most definitely my part of it, but actually all of it - is just the same as in the US, though less so, maybe.

European journeys in cars are increasing, by public transport, decreasing (with the exception of densely urbanised areas, London, Paris, where its the other way around). Basically, Britons are making more journeys by car, less by bus and less by bike, 1991-2001. Daniel Dorling and Bethan Thomas's People and Places, Bristol, 2004 gives good sources.

So, too, suburbanisation, which increases apace. By the government's categorisations, 84 per cent of Britons live in suburban-type wards. Marcial Echenique and Rob Homewood, The Future Of Suburbs And Exurbs, Report for The Independent Transport Commission, The Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies 2003, p 6

-------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <../attachments/20040923/569f4cc6/attachment.htm>



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list