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Wondering.
Mar. 18th, 2006 01:37 amNow that gasoline is settling at $2.30 a gallon, there's a growing class of people that drives exactly 12 times a week. 10 times to get to work and back, and twice, on Sunday or Saturday, on a completely preplanned trip to the stores and back. And that's it. Too expensive to do anything else with it. There have always been such people, but now their number is growing.
What I wonder is if you can't use your car for anything spontaneous, is what you own really a car? If you reach the point where your car is only marginally more usefull than a horse & buggy, what are the social implications? You can't be too capricious with a horse. They have to fed and stabled, and they get antsy when they travel to a new area. They're slower and have less range. They "break down" more often, though usually they'll do that at the stable more often than on the road, but if you have to discipline your car usage rigidly anyway, how much harder is it to switch? I'm just wondering how precipitous America's falling out of love with the automobile will be.
What I wonder is if you can't use your car for anything spontaneous, is what you own really a car? If you reach the point where your car is only marginally more usefull than a horse & buggy, what are the social implications? You can't be too capricious with a horse. They have to fed and stabled, and they get antsy when they travel to a new area. They're slower and have less range. They "break down" more often, though usually they'll do that at the stable more often than on the road, but if you have to discipline your car usage rigidly anyway, how much harder is it to switch? I'm just wondering how precipitous America's falling out of love with the automobile will be.
