
The End of Our Love Affair with Cars - robg
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203771904574173401767415892.html
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sown
Myself having been born in the 70s this article didn't make much sense. Cars
are nice, to be sure, but so is having clean air, a sustainable future and not
spending decades of my life commuting in one.

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kingkongrevenge
The most mass transit friendly cities have the longest commuting times.

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sown
Also living in such a city (silicon valley), I see what you mean.

If I live near a bus/light rain/caltrain line whose terminus is also near
work, then it's not such a big deal. Also, if I go during commuting hours it
can be comparable, but not always.

If I lived in south-central San Jose, then it would be better to get a car,
perhaps even during commute hours. If I lived in Tracey or Stockton, taking
the ACE train would be much preferable, even if it were longer since I could
read, do what ever; a car would mean 90+ minutes of commuting. A co-worker has
recently taken to practicing electric guitar on the ACE.

Of course, this is all anecdotal, and so is your statement. I have no idea how
it works in non-US cities.

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amitt
Fantastic article. Having been born in the 80s, I find the author's point
about younger generations not seeing the "magic" of automobiles fairly
accurate.

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DannoHung
People moved into the burbs because they thought more would make them happy,
not because cars let them get out of the city.

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kingkongrevenge
People moved to the burbs because federal and state policy systematically
subsidized and encouraged it.

William Whyte wrote about the genesis of suburbia. It was not really a mass
movement of preference. Businesses and jobs moved, the infrastructure moved,
and people followed.

Also, machine politics and race conflict was destroying the cities, as the
article alludes. Suburbia is much more about racial apartheid than is commonly
acknowledged. The most functional urban cities, such as Portland, just happen
to be the most white.

> tax-sucking mass-transit projects.

What does he think suburbia is? It's a massive government subsidized
experiment that started in the 40s. Without federal highways and the
systematic subsidization of house construction and ownership suburbia wouldn't
exist. The American development patterns of the preceding 50 years would
probably have continued.

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dantheman
Dont forget rent control and other things cities did, and some still do that
make housing difficult.

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dcminter
Kipling was an early adopter...

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dcminter
To be more specific (since I have been downvoted), Kipling was an early
adopter _of the motor car_. At the time he wasn't impressed enough to include
them in his list of "great things" quoted by the article.

Of course that may be poetic license, since he's putting the words into the
mouth of someone who would not necessarily have seen a car. Alternatively it
may be a matter of Kipling's perception of the potential for the vehicle.

Still, I thought it was interesting that the words of someone who was in fact
remarkably gung-ho about the motor car were being used in this fashion.

