
The Future of Transportation Is the Car - mxschumacher
https://medium.com/ghost-blog/the-future-of-transportation-is-the-car-8eac64b6cee
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eesmith
Places built for cars depend on cars so cars are in the future - news at 11.

> There are an estimated 8 parking spaces per car in the United States

Subsidized parking via zoning requirements = "built for cars"

> would you rather take an UberX or a Pool? Or a bus?

I would rather walk. However, most places in the US are not built for walking.
Most places are also not built for buses. They are built for cars.

> Commutes are getting longer. ... Cars are freedom. They give people the
> opportunity to live where they want,

I don't know about you, but I don't think most people _want_ a long commute. I
certainly know people with 45 minute commute who want to live closer to work,
but can't because they can't afford to live closer.

Since our infrastructure is built around cars, that means we've also built our
business districts and suburbs and exurbs around cars. There's been less
pressure to build dense because you can "always" drive another 10 minutes and
be at the end of town where land is cheap.

> Road networks have proven to be a relatively easy and extremely effective
> investment

A.k.a "the Growth Ponzi Scheme". From [https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-
ponzi-scheme/](https://www.strongtowns.org/the-growth-ponzi-scheme/) \- "Most
American cities find themselves caught in the Growth Ponzi Scheme. We
experience a modest, short term illusion of wealth in exchange for enormous,
long term liabilities. We deprive our communities of prosperity, overload our
families with debt and become trapped in a spiral of decline."

> Public transit, even in the densest cities, is massively subsidized

Car transit is also massively subsidized. Those parking spots don't come for
free. Those city roads don't come for free. Part 2 of the "Growth Ponzi
Scheme" works out the numbers. Property taxes aren't usually enough to pay off
those city streets.

