Bob Sullivan writes... > Automobiles and cheap gasoline over the past 100 years have fostered > a very low density development pattern. Home densities do not > support economical public transit, so everyone drives a car. The > demand for gasoline is very in-elastic. We buy gas whatever the > price because we must have it to drive to work. The only changes > come when we buy new vehicles that are more efficient.
It's not just the cheap gas. It's also the relatively cheap land, which would be impossible to find in most of Europe. In every city in the world, as soon as the middle class wealth reached the point where cars were possible, traffic congestion exploded as did suburban development. Many people just prefer not to live in a high-density situation. Middle-class people in the U.S. can often afford a country home, where in Europe it's not nearly as available. That has led to a different cultural outlook. But the cultural prediliction for using that wealth to obtain open space is more deep-rooted than cars, gasoline prices, or development laws. Reminds me of the difference between Navajo and Hopi culture in the Southwest. Navajo culture prizes solitude, and the people think they are living in the right spot when they can't see any neighbors. That's a tough standard for them--many have a view in the dozens of miles. The Hopis and other Pueblo cultures live in high-density villages in the uplands of the Colorado Plateau. The Navajo are recent immigrants (relatively) having moved to the area only 600 or 700 years ago. 700 years is a long time, and most Americans are far closer to their ancestors who moved here to find religious freedom and cheap land. Yet those fundamental cultural differences remain. > Studded snow tires are excellent when the road is covered with snow > and ice. They were banned here over 30 years ago. We were living in > Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the time (population 1,000,000+) and the 6 > lane super highways began to have tire ruts down the lanes, not in the > snow - in the concrete! Studs are hard on pavement, and pavement is hard on studs. Where you have snow and ice most days during the winter, they are practical. Here in the DC region, we have snow on the roads perhaps a dozen days out of the year, and ice more rarely than that. Studs are not practical. But I'm sitting in my office, and it is currently snowing. I will have to get home, and I'm glad my vehicle has a relatively high ground clearance and all-wheel drive. But I'm also glad it has a low center of gravity (it's a Subaru Outback). Rick "in the transportation biz" Denney --- 645 and 6x7 user -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
