Probably, yes.

The framing of the issue as whether or not to have highways is, of course, a frame that is biased to give the yes answer. Frame the question in terms of should we put the effort into building the highways or the equivalent effort into building dedicated transport corridors for public transport, the answer is no longer so automatic.

And, yes, in the early 1900's you could go from one small city to a small village to a next small city in Ohio via interurbans without requiring either horse-drawn or horseless carriage. The idea that cars are required for life in small towns is just an ahistorical projection of current institutions.

Indeed, one of the major elements that interfere with recreating that in the US is the heavy subsidy of the auto-over-all system.


I've been accused of being a Marxist, yet while Harpo's my favourite, it's Groucho I'm always quoting. Odd, that.