I was out driving someplace, sitting at a red light, waiting for the left arrow to turn green. And this thought just popped into my head...
What if cars had never become popular?
That is to say:
What if when automobiles were invented, people looked upon them with mild disdain, and rather than adopting the technology, it fell into disrepute? What if we had no cars on our roads today because of this?
Today's A to Z Challenge post brought to you by the letter...
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I think the world would be bigger and life would be simpler. Unless of course some other thing became popular for long distance travel. Sometimes I wish we could slow things down.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Charity, it would be slower, but I also think something else would have been invented to speed it all up, no idea what of course...but something.
ReplyDeletemaybe people will all be flying instead? :)
ReplyDeleteOooh, that's a thought...
DeleteI bet people would use trains and subways more. Also, no one would care about oil.
ReplyDeleteOoh! I'm catching the vision now: Rather than focusing on cars for travel, scientists focus on the power of teleportation and wormholes. Yes!
ReplyDeleteGood question! I'd love it because we could all ride bikes. I like the idea of focusing more on teleportation and wormholes...
ReplyDeleteAccording to my grandparents, automobile was looked down upon. Wasn't reliable. A horse was faster and could take a sleeping driver home.
ReplyDeleteIf cars didn't become popular, our economy never would have taken off without cheap, easy transportation of goods. Industry became highly dependent on road transportation. We'd be living a hard life right now without much of our technology.
Oh really? I did not know that. I probably should rephrase the question.
DeleteI don't know about the economy, though. Trains were still around. I wonder if something else would have come along to speed things up a bit.
If that were the case, I'd have a lot farther to travel to go to watch movies...
ReplyDeleteNot sure I like the teleportation idea myself. Maybe I'll just stay home.
I agree with Charity; the world would be much smaller. Sometimes I wish there were no cars so life would move at a slower pace.
ReplyDeletePretty sure life without cars would have a nicer quality all around. Coincidentally I read something today by Noam Chomsky about this topic. I am paraphrasing but the idea was: what if there was a true market system where we could choose between cars and a reliable, efficient and cheap public transit system? Because right now everything conspires to make that an impossible choice.
ReplyDeleteThat is true. Especially around here. Relying on public transportation is not a good way to get around. They're building up an infrastructure that we used to have but was dismantled by the car companies.
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