In answer to my skepticism about changing American cities to the Dutch pattern, Genec argues that change is always possible: "And yet so many cities did change... with the advent of the motor vehicle... thus nothing is "impossible to change."" Steam power radically changed human societies; so did the automobile. But these innovations created enormously powerful forces, far beyond the puny forces with which Cranky and his associates expect to change American society.
When I argued that the Dutch urban situation in 1970 was greatly different from the American situation of today, Genec argues back: "What, the Dutch did not have overcrowded inner city streets and poor motor vehicle traffic throughput in the '70s, just as America has today?" American cities have had 100 years to develop in ways that are suited to mass motoring. Not that all have done so completely; NYC, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, come to mind, but even these operate effectively with the amount of motoring that they use. Dutch cities in 1970 had three centuries, or more, of development as walking cities, operating effectively with insignificant motor traffic until the 1960s, when they suddenly became overwhelmed by mass motoring that is entirely unsuited to those cities. The Dutch urban problem when mass motoring entered was immensely greater than the current traffic problems in any American city.