Who Needs the Autobahn?
Hitler built the big multi-lane highway system on which drivers could travel at NASCAR speeds, and then he promoted the production of automobiles for Mr. Everyman (VWs). But today's hot news from Deutschland is the car-free society. In Vauban, Germany, if you want a garage for your car next to your house, you have to pay an extra $40,000. The residents there are trying to live without cars.
Europe has always been a fairly easy place to get around without mounting thousands of pounds of metal and and pumping tons of carbon into the air. It's an old place, and Europeans had to create a society long ago that allowed people and goods to move freely without automobiles. On the other hand, here in the U. S. we have made it virtually impossible to leave our own yards without being surrounded with metal.
Interestingly, while Europeans are moving away from the massively expensive mode of personal transportation, in India and China all the rage is to escape muscle power and public transportation. Will the carbon savings in Germany simply go up in smoke in other areas of the globe? (See The New York Times' story.)
Hitler built the big multi-lane highway system on which drivers could travel at NASCAR speeds, and then he promoted the production of automobiles for Mr. Everyman (VWs). But today's hot news from Deutschland is the car-free society. In Vauban, Germany, if you want a garage for your car next to your house, you have to pay an extra $40,000. The residents there are trying to live without cars.
Europe has always been a fairly easy place to get around without mounting thousands of pounds of metal and and pumping tons of carbon into the air. It's an old place, and Europeans had to create a society long ago that allowed people and goods to move freely without automobiles. On the other hand, here in the U. S. we have made it virtually impossible to leave our own yards without being surrounded with metal.
Interestingly, while Europeans are moving away from the massively expensive mode of personal transportation, in India and China all the rage is to escape muscle power and public transportation. Will the carbon savings in Germany simply go up in smoke in other areas of the globe? (See The New York Times' story.)
Labels: The Environment
posted by Jim | 9:21 AM
1 Comments:
Jim, you've got to get a copy of "Two Billion Cars." I got one at the U-Park bookstore last week and am reading it now. There are now about one billion cars worldwide. With India and China growing left and right, that number will reach 2 billion before humanity even knows what happened.
Take a look at the book cover:
http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Two-Billion-Cars/Daniel-Sperling/e/9780195376647/?itm=1
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