Originally Posted by
El Cid
My guess is based on the idea that people will never, ever give up their cars. So if a disastrous, absolutely crushing economic depression were to hit America, which city would be hit the hardest (and therefore be the most car-free)?
That's a very interesting point of view. You're looking at dystopia, while most people so far have been thinking along utopian lines. You're also looking at falling rates of car ownership causing the changes, rather than being a result. I see that you live in a part of the world that's very
dependent on car sales, as I do. We both know how badly a decline in car manufacturing can effect an economy. I question whether it would destroy Detroit at this point, after so much manufacturing has already been lost.
I hate to think of a city becoming carfree because people can't afford cars, but i guess it could happen. What will happen to Silicon Valley and San Francisco when/if most technology and software development jobs are automated? Some people say it won't be long before computers are writing the code that runs computers with little or no human input.
FYI, a discussion in a Detroiter forum about being voluntarily carfree in the city as it exists today:
Is it crazy to (voluntarily) live without a car in Detroit?