I, too dependent on cars though I am, think often of this passage from C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy: "The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the standard of the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in returned I possessed 'infinite riches' in what would have been to motorists 'a little room.' The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it 'annihilates space.' It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventures than his grandfather got from travelling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there."
If we “blaspheme” every time we push the accelerator, than our ancestors sinned just as much when they invented saddles for their domesticated horses. Which means the problem isn’t cars.
Nah, it’s because the barrier to entry for obtaining a license is to low, which is a downstream consequence of our misplaced belief in driving as a ‘God given right’ rather than a privilege issued by the state.
Let's turn all our cars into playhouses for our kids!!!
I, too dependent on cars though I am, think often of this passage from C.S. Lewis's Surprised by Joy: "The deadly power of rushing about wherever I pleased had not been given me. I measured distances by the standard of man, man walking on his two feet, not by the standard of the internal combustion engine. I had not been allowed to deflower the very idea of distance; in returned I possessed 'infinite riches' in what would have been to motorists 'a little room.' The truest and most horrible claim made for modern transport is that it 'annihilates space.' It does. It annihilates one of the most glorious gifts we have been given. It is a vile inflation which lowers the value of distance, so that a modern boy travels a hundred miles with less sense of liberation and pilgrimage and adventures than his grandfather got from travelling ten. Of course if a man hates space and wants it to be annihilated, that is another matter. Why not creep into his coffin at once? There is little enough space there."
If we “blaspheme” every time we push the accelerator, than our ancestors sinned just as much when they invented saddles for their domesticated horses. Which means the problem isn’t cars.
The massive road death toll in the US is because Americans refuse to use seat belts.
Nah, it’s because the barrier to entry for obtaining a license is to low, which is a downstream consequence of our misplaced belief in driving as a ‘God given right’ rather than a privilege issued by the state.
Don't have to wear seat belts on a walk.