the car, particularly for americans but also in other countries (mainland china being a prominently rising example), literally embodies individualistic expressi

the car, particularly for americans but also in other countries (mainland china being a prominently rising example), literally embodies individualistic expression, expansive freedom, and bold adventurism, as 50+ years of tv car ads can attest. that's not to pass an overly harsh judgement on any of those things, but rather, to say the balance is out of whack and has been for a while. in LA, outside of a very few of the oldest core districts, even our supposedly sleepy neighborhood streets are often 40+ feet wide (note that cars are typically 6-7 feet wide), with 15 feet of public easement, and 15+ feet of mandatory setbacks, so urban land use gets out of whack real quicklike that way.