Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!MIMSY.UMD.EDU!chris
From: chris@MIMSY.UMD.EDU (Chris Torek)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: cars as horseless carriages
Message-ID: <8901131658.AA07780@mimsy.umd.edu>
Date: 13 Jan 89 16:58:34 GMT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 27


	From: mcvax!ukc!cs.tcd.ie!tcdmath!gwills@uunet.uu.net  (Graham Wills)

	They would have been much more quaint if they had remarked
	" Oh, a new type of transport which will cause fundamental changes
	  in the way we live "

	Graham Wills
	TCD, Ireland

There is an old joke about the difference between an Englishman and
an American (USAn):  The Englishman thinks 100 miles is a long distance;
the American thinks 100 years is a long time.  I suspect the joke applies
to the Irish as well.

The automobile *did* cause `fundamental' changes in the way the average
American lives: it enabled the creation of suburbs.  Many of those who
work in the D.C. area live more than 60 miles away from their place of
employment.  The average suburbanite drives more than fifteen thousand
miles each year%---more than 40 miles each day.  This pace is rather a
bit heavy for horse-and-buggy.

Chris

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% This figure was determined by the laborious process of picking a
nice-sounding number out of thin air. :-)