It's All About Cars, People!

 

 

    In America cars rule, where urban design is centered around the needs of cars not people. Look at shopping malls and amusement parks surrounded by vast expanse of asphalt parking. Suburbs that disconnect whole communities. America is so big, goes the claim, we must have cars because public transport would be impractical.

    Bullshit.

     The vast interstate hiway came about when the US military saw the Autobahn in Germany that can easily move troops and building it put lots of people to work, so we did the same thing. The auto makers saw it as a golden opportunity to sell cars. Trains, street cars, and buses that worked perfectly fine disappeared in favor of cars. In many cities zoning requires developers to provide parking, taking up valuable space and diminishing density.

    Americans who travel to Europe rave about the walk ability of towns yet are loath to bring the idea home. Why? Because then you won't need a car. Get in the car kids we're going shopping, to the park, to school to.... you get everywhere by car.

An article on NPR points out our entrenched car culture and the difficulty to create sustainable neighborhoods here.

     "... one of the biggest obstacles to creating 15-minute cities in the U.S. is zoning restrictions," says Jonathan Levine, professor of urban and regional planning at University of Michigan. "The single-family zone absolutely dominates residential land in all of our metropolitan areas."

      Add to this the conspiracy nuts who want to stop this movement because they think it's a plot by the elite to control us.

    "The unifying theme of a lot of these attacks and conspiracies is that climate change is being used as a pretext to strip people of their civil liberties." says Jennie King, head of climate research and policy at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue in London, a nonprofit that studies extremism."

      "You'll essentially be contained unless you get permission to leave. That's the idea they're starting to roll out in Europe." Joe Rogan said, promoting the theory on his podcast.

    It never occurs to these paranoid sheep that the people spinning these lies are the very ones who profit from not changing a thing, and the car centric economy that waste resources.

      Walking everywhere to stay healthy, have essentials close by and cutting down on waste is un American, evil--even socialist. Getting in your car and driving everywhere is the American way which will not be constrained.

    But how would I know, I ride a bike everywhere.