01 June 2008

America's Car Culture: Is the End Near?

This post here on the Spatial Sustain blog serves as a great introduction to this article here from the Philadelphia Inquirer on what might very well be the end of the American car culture.

I've been wondering for awhile now when this might happen. We've known for too long that our car culture was creating problems for the natural environment as well as creating problems for public health and social cohesion. For some reason, we've been too unwilling to explore the alternatives necessary to move in more sustainable directions. It finally looks like the daily increasing gas prices are going to force the issue. Public transit ridership is up across the country, and there's no end in sight for these ever-increasing gas prices. It will be interesting to see where this goes. I think we're in for a huge paradigm shift and a re-imagining of what American culture is all about.

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