Years ago, America was at the tip of technology and leading the world with innovation as the car became more and more popular. Unfortunately, today that is not the case. America is caught in the past and unable to move forward, yet that is exactly what we must do in order to improve transportation and ultimately our society. Our country is too focused on cars, mainly because that is what it was built around, yet we have the opportunity to look towards other European countries and cities for assistance. These countries are already more dependent on public transportation and are continuing to move in that direction. Here, we have the choice to leave our car-ridden lives and improve public transportation by following their lead.
It has become apparent throughout this course that America relies on cars for transportation but it is now time for the country to move away from this form of transport. America is stuck on cars. They were a booming industry and were beneficial to this country for many years, but are now becoming a burden. As seen in Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City, Detroit is a great example of how cars have led to the downfall of city life. With more and more highways interrupting communities and separating neighborhoods, those without cars are left behind. Not only that but people who live in suburban areas rarely have any option aside from owing a car. This trend has only led to poor transportation and more social and health problems due to inequity, construction, pollution, and separation of communities. America used to be on top due to cars and because of that we have not moved away from them even though they are now detrimental. One reason for this could be that many of our cities have developed around the idea that cars are the main form of transport. For instance, Detroit is the “motor city” and eventually got rid of nearly all of its public transportation and focused just on the automobile (Blueprint America). It is time for America to begin a new era focused around public transportation just as our European counterparts are starting to do.
Overseas, many communities have much more effective public transportation and are still developing plans which America should model to improve our mobility issues. Europe never became quite so car dependent as America is which may be a very viable reason as to why it is much easier for them to map out the future of their public transportation systems. However, they have still had much greater public transport for a long time, especially their metro and train systems. Spain is in the midst of developing a cutting edge, high-speed train arrangement that extends to within reasonable distance of 90% of their population (Blueprint America). This increases the productivity and mobility of a large amount of residents since the trains are affordable and convenient. In addition to all of this, it also increases the connectivity between communities and the country, as a whole. Many transportation experts from around America have already begun to research this idea and investigate the logistics behind it and I believe that is a great step towards advancing our own transportation.
In conclusion, our nation needs to take a step back and realize that we must leave our past accomplishments behind and build off of new and advantageous ideas. Cars have been a growing affliction for too long now and it is time to rely more upon public transportation. In order to accomplish this our infrastructure would need various changes to be made and a reliable place to start for that is Europe, since their public transportation is thriving compared to America’s. The main goal, as seen in Spain’s new train system, is to accommodate as many people as possible and in the most efficient way. Public transportation is definitely the way to accomplish this. America just needs to quit this tendency of depending on automobiles so that this country can truly grow.
Resources:
Blueprint America: Beyond the Motor City. Dir. Aaron Woolf. Prod. PBS. 2010. Film.
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