Close your computer (once you’re done reading the full article), walk outside your front door and take a look around: strip malls, cookie-cutter suburban houses and chain restaurants as far as the eye can see. They all have one thing in common: you can’t get to any of these places without a car.
This isn’t surprising in the slightest, as it’s the centerpiece of American infrastructure.
Cars are what cities have been designed around since the creation of the modern American suburb. With this invention, single-family zoning replaced apartments and townhomes, and parking lots replaced the train station. Because of the need to keep cities more spread out for cars, America has become much less walkable and forced people to rely on automobiles more to survive. Spaces that were once oppurtunities to interact with other people while walking soon became roads to get from point A to point B.
This has had an isolating effect on people, as it forces them to be in a bubble of their own. Interacting with others becomes a chore, rather than something pleasant. As loneliness among all demographics becomes an even bigger problem, one of the many factors causing this is the lack of a “third place.” This refers to spaces outside of home and the workplace that allow people to socialize and find new opportunities to meet people they wouldn’t normally.
As car-based infrastructure tears away spots for outdoor activities and social gatherings, it keeps citizens more reliant on social media to pass the time. While that creates connections with the online world, it further detaches people from face-to-face interactions and is an even bigger factor in atomizing people’s lives.
But this is just one of the many issues that come with basing urban city transport around cars instead of people, alongside its environmental and efficiency issues. Thankfully local city governments, including the city of Dallas, have started to take note. As urban and suburban sprawl disconnects people from their communities and separates them from others, it’s vital to understand the consequences of a half century long policy to prioritize cars over all else. It’s time to focus on better ways to plan urban city transportation and take a detour from the dead end of car dependency.
