There were days when everyone traveled by horse and carriage, or walked. Those seem like great days as you got to breathe fresh air back then, before automobiles came in and polluted it all. You got to be with animals. All that and you bounced around so much that they recreated the effect for the later 1900's, called it a "ride" and charged admission.
To see the first automobiles roll down the lane must have been a sight; an amusing sight. They were made with somewhat impressive leather seating, large, awkward wheels and a cumbersome metal body. The person driving this noisy contraption was outfitted with goggles, a must because of the lack of windows on these first cars, or at least the lack of closed windows as it must have been quite stuffy in there. They were also outfitted with an important accessory; a grin as wide as the Empire State Building is tall. This was one of the first of "man's many mechanical toys".
These first vehicles went less than ten miles per hour. Today's family vehicles go about ten times that fast, often faster. Why such a change? Because people want to get where they're going as fast as humanly, or inhumanly, possible.
We abandoned the Model T long ago so that today we could have our Hondas, our Fords, our Jeeps, our Pintos, our VWs and our BMWs. These vehicles are expected to follow speed limits posted by the government, but as you drive along at that speed limit you will most likely notice that cars will pass you quickly. They blame it all on youth, but it's more the people going through their "mid-life crisis" who buy flashy sports cars and accelerate as much as they can.
Unfortunately, it's not only the speed demons out there that make people afraid to drive. There are drunk drivers, people who drive aggressively, people who don't concentrate on their driving, etc. There are even people who will get out of their cars and come after you if you pull into a parking space before they do. As much as I wish I could say that these things don't scare me, it doesn't change the fact that they do.
Now that I think about it, I'd rather not walk. That would most likely involve sidewalks and pedestrians don't stand a chance near the road. With all of the accidents that have people over cliffs, into buildings, onto curbs and off the road, I'm not sure if I fear more for my life inside or outside of an automobile.
Therefore, I've come to a solution. People should budget their time as they do their money. Then, they'll have more time and they can slow down. After that, we can go back to the horse and carriage. With them around, there will be no more need for amusement parks. With the money saved on that and on gas, as horses don't cost all that much to maintain, we'll become a richer nation and we might be able to pull ourselves out of the national debt. While highly improbable, that doesn't make it impossible.
Automobiles have become known as a civilized thing. I don't see anything civilized about them. Yet, they are the cockroaches of the mechanical world. We can't just kill them. There's far too many.
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