University of Virginia Library

Indictment

The remainder of the book
however would be a multi-point
indictment of the car and especially
appropriate in this newly-dawned
Age of Ecology.

Chapter I would describe the
incredible waste of personalized
transportation: 200-300
horsepower and as many cubic feet
of car to carry a 150 pound person;
car after car running from suburb
to city and back again each day
when mass transportation could
carry the same people — and more
— with much less cost and
equipment.

Chapter II, especially directed to
big cars, would describe how the
waste described in Chapter I is
compounded as the car gets bigger.
I remember one summer, after
driving jeeps and sports cars,
suddenly jumping into a big Ford
and driving through the narrow
streets of North Adams, Mass.,
maneuvering the veritable tug-boat
through the traffic, barely missing
everything, and suddenly it struck
me just how silly these
monstrosities were.

Chapter III would describe how
the presence of cars makes it so
easy — too easy to avoid walking,
even for short distances. A college
friend of mine would drive his
Oldsmobile to class — less than the
equivalent of three blocks away.
The suggestion by Stu Pape and
others to abolish cars on the
Grounds and establish permanent
busing is an attractive idea.

Chapter IV would show how the
car is the bane of good planning —
how it invites us to pave the
landscape with parking lots, often
tearing down historic buildings to
make way. Isn't the Barracks Road
Shopping Center — nearly devoid of
greenery — a dreary desert of black
top and shops? Worse, to be sure, is
the almighty traffic flow which
inspires the highway lobbies to urge
the building of more and more
freeways which break up more and
more neighborhoods, fill downtown
with more and more cars, and
absorb more and more public
monies that could be better spent
elsewhere (including on mass
transportation). The citizens of
Washington D.C. can speak well to
the latter point.