[WS:] Yes, indeed. And how revealing of the anti-social nature of the car culture - freedom is separation from social and natural context - the very quintessence of capitalism and slavery. Graeber writes about it quite a bit in the "History of debt" arguing that this kind of "freedom" is actually the foundation of slavery, which he defines as isolating a person from his or her social context and placing him/her in a position of arbitrary control by a slave owner. This is what "car bubble" (to use shag's term) does to people - it isolates them from their social and natural environment and encapsulates them in am artificially created bubble that is probably the most heavily regulated aspect of social behavior in a modern society. It is not just being subjected to a myriad of traffic regulations that change from locality to locality that can be used against the car driver or owner whether she says anything or not - thanks to the implied consensus doctrine underlying the enforcement of traffic laws - but also dependence on the oil industry, fair weather conditions, and above all - good physical stamina. Feel dizzy or impaired today or simply underage - you cannot drive and in most places in the US this is tantamount to house arrest, since no alternatives to driving exist.
Cars is what makes the Orwellian "freedom is slavery" come true.
-- Wojtek
"Modern conservatism is just a neoliberal gloss on medieval domination."