Houston has 2,800 km² of asphalt, an area larger than metropolitan Madrid. And though a few North American cities try to curb private vehicular traffic and improve public transport, the sprawl keeps growing, not only in the US but the world over, as do the number, size, and weight of cars.
American culture’s power of seduction has guided cities’ growth since the 1900s, promoting the dream of absolute freedom of movement. Hardly anyone, at least in academe, denies the model’s undesirability. Daniel Knowles asks: is this how we want to live? At the heart of the answer lies the car. Knowles discusses the contradictions of this urban model, especially in the US, and alerts us to the circulatory, social, and ecological collapse of other cities, many in the ‘developing’ world.
And so it is that he infers automobile’s supremacy as a fruit of affluent people’s resistance to give up the privilege of autonomous mobility. Industry generalized this ‘sovereignty,’ resulting in the reduction of density and the expansion of the road network; which, in an endless loop, destroys urban compactness and efficient mass transport. Knowles offers no new solutions but clearly points out culture and ‘aspirations’ as triggers of the catastrophe.
Cars won’t disappear. The freedom and wealth they bring are indispensable, but the way we use them, and hence the way we ‘live together,’ must change. This is not against ‘capital,’ nor against our right to transport; at least not at the necessary speed. It’s not a technical matter, but a political and especially cultural one.
