Living Car Free - Magic Highway USA

I thought you car free folks would enjoy this video:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6pUMlPBMQA

Its Disney's vision in 1958 of the future of the US.

:wtf:
wow... I mean, wow

"From his private parking space, father will probably have to walk to his desk.":lol:

:wtf:
wow... I mean, wow

Yeah. Exactly. One thing they didn't take into account was a thousandfold increase in car traffic. There are lots of roads but very few cars in that "vision".

Looks like they found a cure for obesity too...

Ahh the 50s...

Aw, come on folks. A lot of those predictions came true. They predicted car-dependent sprawl, check. They predicted roads devastating our beautiful landscapes, check. They predicted cars driving themselves, (see google's self-driving car tests) check. They predicted R.Vs, check. They predicted teleconferencing from the car, check. They predicted container ships/trucks, check. I'm impressed with how prescient they were. Now if we can just undo the damage that kind of thinking has done, we'll really be getting somewhere.

It seemed like the authors couldn't make up their minds about what type of automobiles we'd be using. There was the multi-section model that drove the whole family downtown and then separated into parts. There was the gigantic RV car that would carry the whole family around the country, even up steep mountains with elevators. Then there were the the gas turbines, jets, atomic, and electric antigravitic models.

The rocket powered transporters were interesting. This whole program wasn't really about the automobile. It was about the highways on which the automobiles would travel. The one theme throughout was that the vehicles would be automatically controlled. I liked that part of it. I'm no longer interested in driving for pleasure and using a car as a toy on the road. I'd much rather be a passenger in an automatically controlled vehicle. There wasn't much mention of busses or trains for passengers.

Having a highway passing in front of the Sphinx in Egypt was funny.

I thought this was sort of touching. So optimistic, naive, and utterly insane all at he same time. It's interesting to see what those visionaries were imagining when they came up with the infrastructure plan that will eventually impoverish us all...

I kind of like the idea of heated roads, though.

The music was nice, but not so nice that I would sit through 8 minutes of what seemed like brainwashing. Did you notice the subliminal messages? :)

What? No, I've always wanted to spray paint Mickey's head on synagogues.
What are you talking about?

I thought this was sort of touching. So optimistic, naive, and utterly insane all at he same time. It's interesting to see what those visionaries were imagining when they came up with the infrastructure plan that will eventually impoverish us all...

I kind of like the idea of heated roads, though.

Iceland has some heated roadway. They use some of their geothermal power to keep the road from freezing. It seems like I read something about Sweden doing the same thing a few years ago.

I thought this was sort of touching. So optimistic, naive, and utterly insane all at he same time. It's interesting to see what those visionaries were imagining when they came up with the infrastructure plan that will eventually impoverish us all...

I kind of like the idea of heated roads, though.

Agreed.

Someone posted this before but it still makes me laugh. What made this dream an illusion was the astronomical high cost of building it in the first place. I suspect no one in 1958 could have imagined we would be spending over tens of billions on roads and come no where near their vision.

It was assumed technology would make road construction inexpensive and quick to produce but that has not been the case. Our nation is bankrupting itself borrowing hundreds of billions just to keep the current infrastructure from falling apart.

Agreed.

Someone posted this before but it still makes me laugh. What made this dream an illusion was the astronomical high cost of building it in the first place. I suspect no one in 1958 could have imagined we would be spending over tens of billions on roads and come no where near their vision.

It was assumed technology would make road construction inexpensive and quick to produce but that has not been the case. Our nation is bankrupting itself borrowing hundreds of billions just to keep the current infrastructure from falling apart.

And they aren't even successful at that! We can't generate enough money in this country to maintain the current roadway system, but they continue to build more that they will have to maintain...madness!

Aaron :)

And they aren't even successful at that! We can't generate enough money in this country to maintain the current roadway system, but they continue to build more that they will have to maintain...madness!

Aaron :)

Meanwhile, China (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_Maglev_Train), Europe and Japan move forward with faster and more modern trains. The U.S., it seems to me, is well on its way to becoming a Third World country.