Driving down the highway at $4 per gallon
In tomorrow's Book Review, Sarah Weinman reviews "Black and White," a new novel by Lewis Shiner. The book deals with some weighty issues, including a terminally ill parent, a murder and urban planning. In a post on John Scalzi's blog, Shiner focuses on the latter, writing about freeways:
When I started researching my new book, "Black & White," I hadn’t thought that much about freeways...."Black & White" is about a North Carolina neighborhood called Hayti, once the most prosperous black community in the South. During the 1960s, Hayti was bulldozed to make room for the Durham Freeway, leading to a new industrial development called Research Triangle Park. The money to do it came in large part from the federal urban renewal program. All told, urban renewal wiped out 150 neighborhoods like Hayti, and virtually all of the displaced residents were African-American. Freeways were often the excuse for the demolition....
The dream of the Interstate Highway System was to end traffic congestion forever. With the advantage of hindsight, [writer Tom] Lewis [in "Divided Highways"] makes it clear that the dream never had a chance. Once a highway is built, new homes, stores, and workplaces will naturally spring up in proximity. With more destinations now in reach of the freeway, traffic grows to fill all available lanes. Expand the number of lanes and more cars show up to choke them as well.
And the cycle grows more vicious by the day. With more and more destinations accessible only by freeway, cars become even more indispensable. Longer trips mean more fuel consumption, more pollution. With highways getting all the money and railroads proportionately starving, trucks take over all the freight transportation. More pollution, more wear and tear on the roads, more congestion.
And, eventually, the price of gas goes up to $4 a gallon (or here in LA, $4.73 per gallon). Which makes the real-world exploitation of the Interstate Highway System awfully pricey.
This makes me glad that a couple of years ago, a guy left Venice, CA in a convertible (I think a vintage Mustang) and drove to NYC with a time-lapse camera attached. Enjoy the result, a 4-minute cross-country drive, no gas required.
Carolyn Kellogg
