Mini Exasperation #18
Mini Exasperation #18
There really is an XKCD for everything
So, we’ve seen this comic, right? I wanted to share it and not be a total pill, but I have some thoughts:
The spacing of the text/comic bubbles first caught my eye here. I’m not totally sure that it was totally intentional, but it rings very true to my experience here that people with culturally driven opinions tend to be very quick to judge and double down, and people whose worldview is consciously crafted and changes relatively frequently based upon new evidence tend to be much less quick to judge. A small factoid.
I know it’s easy to ring the Netherlands bell as often as possible when we talk about the streets we want as an advanced society. Streets that put the person’s safety, dignity, and equity first over the need to drive a car as fast as possible and store it as free as possible. It’s a correct take, but it’s not as simple as wanting this to be true—car culture is systematic, and the same contextually-driven problems that compelled the Dutch government into a systemic change may not be the same for us locally or Federally. We need redundant and informed communications to get it right. Even though I’m not sure what could be more compelling than “let’s not kill kids.”
Is there a way that we can create this type of momentum and passion without the Great Trip Abroad? One of the core tenets of many advocates is “seeing is believing” and it rings true in this context: the protagonist in this comic has done a 180 only after having seen what’s possible. It’s not often possible for someone to travel broadly before fighting for equity in their home. We need real leadership so this comic is more obviously satire.
That’s all.
"Is there a way that we can create this type of momentum and passion without the Great Trip Abroad?"
I think the pleasant college towns or tourist towns with a nice main street is one compelling way for people to understand how a different way is possible. But even then - sometime our nice little college towns lack easy access to grocers, drug stores, and a ton of other essentials. People see those places as for bars and restaurants primarily, and so they have a bit of limited value.
I think the biggest way is to center it on kids and old folks and people who can't afford cars - "shouldn't they have access to all the services they need? Do busy parents need to shuttle their kids everyhwere, can't we build a town where kids walk, like Mayberry?" I think tapping into a nostalgia for small-town America of a by-gone Happy Days era is a way to make urbanism more palatable across idealogical lines. "Kids are too coddled these days? It's because cars can kill the way we've built towns! Your grandad used to walk everywhere and he loved it! You used to bike everywhere! And then traffic got worse, roads got bigger, and it's dangerous. Let's scale it back, build more neighborhood shops to make trips easier, build more busses between neighborhoods, so not every 16 year old needs a car in order to work - since 16 year olds are TERRIBLE drivers!"
We will have to define what walkability and urbanism looks like for American culture that is distinct for us