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If cars were invented today, we would not have the infrastructure to support them. We were able to build massive car infrastructure as a result of the economic

If cars were invented today, we would not have the infrastructure to support them. We were able to build massive car infrastructure as a result of the economic expansion following WWII. We built out our environments to a huge extent in order to support car dependent lifestyles. If cars were invented today, I would hope there would be discussion as to whether or not that infrastructure should be built, and if we would have the money to support. As of now, tons of maintenance costs are associated with our sprawl, and many communities are saddled with debt that they'll struggle to repay. We probably would limit them to niche needs, and only build out enough infrastructure to support our needs. Making every street and road accessible to cars would be a huge undertaking, as it was then.

captainoats 5y ago
Look at photos of the US from before the introduction of the automobile. It looks very similar to today because of the similar form factor horse and carriage has to a car or truck. Minus the interstate highway system, things would look nearly the same.
- milkytron 5y ago
  Yeah the layout is mostly the same, but the costs for a dirt/gravel/cobblestone road are much less and there wouldn't be as many roads out to the middle of nowhere. There would have been decades of building density in the hearts of cities, something which is lacking now.
- Karrot_Kream 5y ago
  Lots of other developed countries that don't incentivize suburban development just don't develop roads in lower density areas. Roads with lower LOSes often are just gravel roads or sealed dirt roads instead of leveled and graded concrete the way it is in the US. That's the problem when it comes to affordability here; the actual usage of these low-density roads isn't worth the cost of maintaining them.
- pgodzin 5y ago
  Except that almost every city was denser before, with buildings now replaced by highways and surface parking lots

captainoats 5y ago

Look at photos of the US from before the introduction of the automobile. It looks very similar to today because of the similar form factor horse and carriage has to a car or truck. Minus the interstate highway system, things would look nearly the same.

milkytron 5y ago
Yeah the layout is mostly the same, but the costs for a dirt/gravel/cobblestone road are much less and there wouldn't be as many roads out to the middle of nowhere. There would have been decades of building density in the hearts of cities, something which is lacking now.
Karrot_Kream 5y ago
Lots of other developed countries that don't incentivize suburban development just don't develop roads in lower density areas. Roads with lower LOSes often are just gravel roads or sealed dirt roads instead of leveled and graded concrete the way it is in the US. That's the problem when it comes to affordability here; the actual usage of these low-density roads isn't worth the cost of maintaining them.
pgodzin 5y ago
Except that almost every city was denser before, with buildings now replaced by highways and surface parking lots