Driving
We drove down the Jersey Shore on vacation in 3 hours, 20 minutes, but it took 4 hours to return home. You never know, even with Waze, when you’ll hit traffic. There were no accidents or construction work, just a hell of a lot of cars.
Electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, or fusion vehicles are not going to change the fact that the roads can’t accommodate the amount of people seeking to commute, pleasure drive, shop, vacation, and so on. Mass transit improvement is simply a dream in most densely populated areas. Larger roads and more lanes aren’t the answer pragmatically or financially.
When I was young, with fewer turnpikes and parkways, and cars that overheated, my parents took the same long trips, but without air conditioning or the comfort (and safety) of today’s vehicles. My kids are taking similar trips today. And their kids?
What I’m noticing is that the rigor of these trips combined with a glut of properties on the market and high prices are “driving” people elsewhere. It’s cheaper to go to the Caribbean islands than it is to go to Cape Cod, where summer rentals are plummeting because so many houses purchased during the pandemic are not being used and are being put up for rental. The Jersey Shore was less crowded than I’ve ever seen it.
We need to adapt because the idealistic solutions don’t work.
(By the way, who can prove that switching to electric cars from internal combustion engines really dramatically lowers the carbon footprint?)
