Sunday May 04, 2008 at 16:42
“those who put speed above all other values are often cheated even of speed by their single dedication to a single mode of mass locomotion.”
—
Lewis Mumford, bemoaning bridges replacing ferries and highways replacing street cars and other modes of mass transit.
It is both amazing and so frustrating that Mumford writing 60 years ago could predict the type of stunted society we would be living in. Robert Moses built highways in New York to relieve congestion, but instead the roads were filled to capacity years ahead of schedule, all the while he steadfastly refused to invest in transit. And again NYC missed the opportunity of using a congestion tax to fund transit. Now the cost of gas is reaching higher and higher every month, and people have no choice but to drive because most of America made “a singe dedication to a single mode of mass locomotion.” All the economists are telling us gas will not go down in price; cities must start to invest in alternative modes of transit now.
