Friday, July 29, 2005

Today I read a blog post.

I think it was linked to by the hughtrain person. I wish I'd delicioused it. Here -- I found it. Anyway, I think the blogger, ranting blatherer (The title of the blog is actually, "Raving Lunacy," -- I was close) or some such, was talking about how lousy the Big 3 "employee discounts for everyone" programs were because cars are quickly being made obsolete by the Internet and a bunch of other trends. I hope this is true! I loathe cars. I agree that meatspace shopping, at least for the purpose of buying stuff, is probably going by the wayside and good riddance. What's the point of driving all over the place to buy something? However, shopping and going to stores isn't just about buying stuff. There's a social, promenade aspect to the whole thing as well. You go to the mall (or cruise the plaza) to see and be seen. What about that part of the activity?

We primarily use our car to go to appointments -- to connect with the service economy -- and to visit friends. How is that going to be replaced with online activity? It's not. Now if public transit were better, maybe car-free living would be a pleasant prospect. As it is, I do not think we will be selling our automobile anytime soon.

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1 Comments:

At 6:52 PM, Blogger Psipsina said...

Never owned one. I hope to reach the age of forty without owning one. In Boston we have Zipcar (hey, I think you do, too) for short trips, and for long trips rental cars seldom cost more than $35/day. With planning a wedding and visiting potential reception sites outside the city, we have been driving almost every weekend, but that is massively unusual. Less than once every two months is more usual. Even in daily life I'm not totally free of carbon-powered vehicles - I do take mass transit or the rare taxi or even rarer plane trip, and I occasionally accept a ride from a car owner.

 

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