11th
David Alpert responds to sentiment brewing that he and his cohorts are “anti-car” by putting a point on the language of “not more cars” and “low traffic growth.” He also explains how changing demographics will affect attitudes toward transportation and development — the baby boomer generation is retiring and with them their penchant for classical car-ism.
Alpert et allii may be bicycle/pedestrian idealists, but no one is saying that cars are going the way of the dinosaurs, only that metropolitan environments can’t be feasibly designed to revolve around them anymore. Owning a car will be more expensive and complicated, not because smart growth kids are making up numbers or manipulating the government, but because the costs of owning and operating a car are actually increasing and the strain of single-occupant vehicles on transportation infrastructure is becoming too burdensome and nonsensical. The government-sponsored car-centric lifestyle as it exists now is unsustainable and will have to give.
