So I was going to post a much more serious, data-driven, diatribe against the evils of the automobile, this article from citylab, but then I decided what we need more is a hilarious rant on the subject instead. And one that shows a brilliant, imaginative alternative to inspire our creative minds to solve this problem, rather than just be further downtrodden by The Gloom.
I'm a fan but c'mon. I commute fuckin' 31 miles by river every day. On a bicycle. Next to a river whose e.coli levels are currently 10 times over legal limits for touching. I can honestly say that if Americans could commute a mile and a quarter we'd be a lot more cheerful. Worthy of note: I've done 8,000 miles on the LA River bike path without the LA river bike path ever being fully open. My current officially sanctioned detour is closed from 11pm until 7am, meaning a lot of the time I have to legit bushwhack just to get home.Benjamin David commutes 2km by river every day.
2km. That’s what I was going to say. It’s not about the swim (although clever), it’s about the short distance. Who would even drive 2km? That’s walkable! In fact, when my city finishes the massively delayed train to my hood, I’ll still have to walk 2km as part of the commute.
As a counterpoint, I actually do enjoy my drive to work. The morning commute is probably my favorite part of the day. I avoid the freeway almost entirely and take the Arrow Highway for 15 or so miles, which of course makes it much better than gridlock. But in that time I get to jam music in my car/listen the the college radio around here (which I adore), enjoy the breeze (if there is any), appreciate the rain (on the rare occasion there is any), or blast AC otherwise. Plus I generally enjoy driving. I have a relatively fun car (Saab). It has the same engine they put in jets, seriously (I'm lying). So during my commute I get to hug the curves of that straight-as-fuck road littered with stoplights.
I appreciate the perspective, zebra2. And truth be told, I totally relate about the joy of driving in ideal (or simply not horrible) conditions. I like g forces, going fast, and combining those sensations with good music, and the sights, sounds, smells, etc., of the world I'm passing through. Celebrating that set of experiences is a totally worthy endeavor. Having a fun car really helps, as does living somewhere gridlock doesn't make a mockery of one's fine engine. (If we could watch the commercials of professional drivers on private tracks in the Alps or wherever while sitting in traffic, then the closed loop of self-parody would truly be complete). I just wish it weren't increasingly (though surely not in all places) the only form of personal transit deemed acceptable, respectable, and therefore, protected and effectively sponsored by our society. We have zero public transit where I live, too, so the automobile pretty much has a monopoly on getting from point A to point B. Even walking (which I love, but many seem to sneer or gawk at as if it were a disgustingly plebeian undertaking) can't get me past the edge of town safely. We might have developed our infrastructure to permit and encourage multiple forms of transportation -- the really fun, fast, mechanized, motorized ones, and the slower, user-powered, and inexpensive ones (travelling styles that actually improve health more than they threaten it). For the most part, we didn't, though. Maybe Fordism really is the better name for our type of economy, as Gramsci apparently put it. Either way, the route back to diverse, egalitarian transit seems now about as laborious as it is unpopular.
Yes, audiobooks/podcasts have been the saving grace of many a road trip for us! I really do enjoy the time machine effect. I also sometimes marvel that the best way to endure the experience (as a body forced to sit still, but taut, for long periods of time) is to escape the body into the mind. Highways are designed to facilitate this trick, but I think also made to curve just often enough to avoid totally mesmerizing every driver into catatonia. It's one of the senses where our desire for pleasure/utility play a game of chicken with our bodily wellness.