The open road feels a whole lot smaller

c. 2008 Religion News Service INDIANAPOLIS _ Like all American cities in the heady days after World War II, this city tumbled into marriage with the automobile industry. With little thought beyond straight-line projections based on cheap gasoline and available land, city leaders tore up trolley tracks that linked neighborhoods with downtown. They abandoned light-rail […]

c. 2008 Religion News Service

INDIANAPOLIS _ Like all American cities in the heady days after World War II, this city tumbled into marriage with the automobile industry.

With little thought beyond straight-line projections based on cheap gasoline and available land, city leaders tore up trolley tracks that linked neighborhoods with downtown. They abandoned light-rail lines connecting the city to outlying towns (now suburbs) and allowed downtown to crumble into an unappealing patch of tattered buildings and eyesore parking lots.


Developers, in turn, turned rich farmland into look-alike suburbs and strip malls. The city was ringed with highways, and everything from offices to churches to shopping was pushed out to isolated islands surrounded by asphalt.

The strategy _ if there ever was one beyond affirming all things automotive _ enabled a modest Midwest city to become a throbbing urban giant.

The same story played out across the United States as cheap gasoline and powerful cars created the landscape we now know as America: decaying city centers ringed by glistening suburbs; big-box retailers and ever-larger schools; and the suddenly sobering reality that hardly anything beyond lawn-mowing and watching TV is possible without getting into a car.

As gasoline climbs to $5 a gallon and seems headed for $10, that automobile-centered world is crashing down. As I drive a rented car around the city of my childhood, everything looks different to me.

Far-flung suburbs reachable only by car look absurd and problematic, like asbestos tiles that we now know are toxic. In one development, I count five “For Sale” signs on the first eight lawns. As young families flock to “gentrified” housing within walking distance of downtown, I wonder if these outlying lawns will ever again sing with the laughter of children.

Even older suburbs close to downtown now look vulnerable: still wedded to the automobile, with employment scattered to outlying highways and no useful stores within walking distance.

As I pick up my father at his suburban retirement center and drive four miles here and eight miles there, I have a sense of sad farewell, as if every detail of this familiar routine bespeaks a world passing away. “Car dates,” football games, “driving around” with friends, Sunday church, buying clothes, “running out” for milk, going on vacation, visiting colleges, buying books _ everything has started with sliding behind the wheel of a car.


What lies ahead? Marketplace ingenuity will find answers, of course. Look for short-distance vehicles using electric batteries, scooters with carrying cases for groceries, online shopping from home, telecommuting for jobs, vertical housing, light rail, smaller schools near housing, and, of course, walking. Even short-sighted politicians catering to Detroit won’t prevent this new world from emerging.

Watch also for resurgent interest in practical fields like engineering, increased competition for access to the few quality schools, and car-free living wherever possible.

Some will suffer, such as suburbanites who can’t sell their houses or cars, and merchants marooned in a sea of asphalt. Many will rethink dreams based on bigger and farther. Others will relish smaller homes, front porches and neighborhood convenience.

I think good days lie ahead. But as I drive around the city where I had a standard American childhood _ being driven, yearning to drive, driving myself, buying a car _ I sense that a “farewell tour” is at hand.

(Tom Ehrich is a writer, church consultant and Episcopal priest based in New York. He is the author of “Just Wondering, Jesus,” and the founder of the Church Wellness Project, http://www.churchwellness.com. His Web site is http://www.morningwalkmedia.com.)

KRE/PH END EHRICH

A photo of Tom Ehrich is available via https://religionnews.com.

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