Crap.
As the weather has warmed, I've been biking almost exclusively again. More than ever, I'm convinced that the mass adoption of the automobile represents one of the biggest, if not the biggest public policy failure of the 20th century. I mean, I suppose the Great Leap Forward still killed more people than the car has directly, but by the time we undo the damage of the automobile I'm not sure that will still be the case.
I'm assuming nobody's going to be making the argument that the rise of the automobile represents the triumph of rational actors in the free market, unfettered by government subsidy or sanction, right? We've played that out for a while at least?
3 comments:
"I'm convinced that the mass adoption of the automobile represents one of the biggest, if not the biggest public policy failure of the 20th century"
Let's call it #2, behind mass adoption of public television...
As another daily rider, I have to say that nothing illuminates the evils of a car-obsessed society like riding next to them on a bike. In fact, I think of little else (other than the remarkable scenery) on many of my rides.
What makes mass adoption of the automobile a public policy? Eisenhower's interstates, obviously, but the government pushed the transcontinental railroad and that doesn't mean trains were adopted as "public policy."
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