by seldom_seen » Sat 04 Jun 2005, 03:33:19
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('smallpoxgirl', 'A')lmost like driving was itself an addictive drug. I'm not sure if I totaly buy it, but it's an interesting concept.
I think you're on to something there.
Lewis Mumford framed it as a religion:
$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', ' ')"For the current American way of life is founded not just on motor transportation but on the religion of the motorcar, and the sacrifices that people are prepared to make for this religion stand outside the realm of rational criticism. Perhaps the only thing that could bring Americans to their senses would be a clear demonstration of the fact that their highway program will, eventually, wipe out the very area of freedom that the private motorcar promise to retain for them. . . . That sense of freedom and power remains a fact today only in low-density areas, in the open country; the popularity of this method of escape has ruined the promise it once held forth. In using the car to flee from the metropolis the motorist finds that he has merely transferred congestion to the highway and thereby doubled it. When he reaches his destination, in a distant suburb, he finds that the countryside he sought has disappeared: beyond him, thanks to the motorway, lies only anther suburb, just as dull as his own."