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So I guess the most pernicious evil is the sprawling suburbia all around America that for no good reason necessitates car travel all around.

by clicks 14y ago

panacea 14y ago
We've got videoconferencing, but imagine if the R&D hours and experience we've got in building cars to ferry people around had been invested in 'remote cars'. i.e. Remote workstations that were like modern office cubicles, except they existed in your home. Even better, instead of cubicles, we could use an array of cameras and monitors to simulate shared working spaces. And instead of spending money on road/rail/air transport infrastructure, we spent it on high-speed data transfer links. So I could have an office on a beach, that when I entered it, I was actually inside a shared, real-time space with my work colleagues. Totally possible with current technology, but not with mindset or infrastructure constraints.
DanBC 14y ago
That's no evil. It is baffling, however, that people who spend so much time in cars are happy with cars that have such poor fuel efficiency. Yes, I understand that some people need big cars with poor fuel efficiency. (You need a 4x4 to get over the hills in winter; or for all the sports gear you're using; or because it's your business.) But people in the suburbs tootling around doing 40 mile commutes every day just need a comfortable car with good efficiency. Cheap gas and complacency really hurt the US.
13b9f227ecf0 14y ago
The reasons for the culture of urban sprawl in the USA substantially boil down to white flight. Urban planning was a disaster in most US cities, the governments and services were dysfunctional, and there were too many people in the cities that middle class folks didn't want themselves or their children around. Arguably the death knell of urban family living was forced busing. Suburbia was a way to get away from people who couldn't afford two cars, and to live around only people who could afford that. You will not curb the suburban sprawl problem in the US until ways develop for communities to control who lives in them. Right now the only mechanism is price. The rich can sustain unsprawled urban enclaves because they price undesirables out of their neighborhoods.

So I guess the most pernicious evil is the sprawling suburbia all around America that for no good reason necessitates car travel all around.

by clicks 14y ago

So I guess the most pernicious evil is the sprawling suburbia all around America that for no good reason necessitates car travel all around.

panacea 14y ago

We've got videoconferencing, but imagine if the R&D hours and experience we've got in building cars to ferry people around had been invested in 'remote cars'. i.e. Remote workstations that were like modern office cubicles, except they existed in your home. Even better, instead of cubicles, we could use an array of cameras and monitors to simulate shared working spaces. And instead of spending money on road/rail/air transport infrastructure, we spent it on high-speed data transfer links. So I could have an office on a beach, that when I entered it, I was actually inside a shared, real-time space with my work colleagues. Totally possible with current technology, but not with mindset or infrastructure constraints.

DanBC 14y ago

That's no evil. It is baffling, however, that people who spend so much time in cars are happy with cars that have such poor fuel efficiency. Yes, I understand that some people need big cars with poor fuel efficiency. (You need a 4x4 to get over the hills in winter; or for all the sports gear you're using; or because it's your business.) But people in the suburbs tootling around doing 40 mile commutes every day just need a comfortable car with good efficiency. Cheap gas and complacency really hurt the US.

13b9f227ecf0 14y ago

The reasons for the culture of urban sprawl in the USA substantially boil down to white flight. Urban planning was a disaster in most US cities, the governments and services were dysfunctional, and there were too many people in the cities that middle class folks didn't want themselves or their children around. Arguably the death knell of urban family living was forced busing. Suburbia was a way to get away from people who couldn't afford two cars, and to live around only people who could afford that. You will not curb the suburban sprawl problem in the US until ways develop for communities to control who lives in them. Right now the only mechanism is price. The rich can sustain unsprawled urban enclaves because they price undesirables out of their neighborhoods.