Promoting quiet recreation in Wisconsin.
Opposing the coming attempts to sell off Wisconsin's natural heritage.
Fighting denial about climate change. When are we hitting the streets?


Monday, October 31, 2005

Do we really want to drive anymore?

My wife and I were passed a few weeks ago by an Audi sports car doing at least 80. The driver was reading an article and marking it up with a hilighter. So I ask you: If driving an Audi sports car at 80 miles an hour isn't exciting enough to keep our attention, isn't it time we just stopped driving?

We are probably close to the point where we will have cars that can drive themselves. The cruise control on my cousin's minivan slows down when it approaches another car. The GPS guidance system on my Prius tells me when I have missed a turn ("make a legal U-turn in one mile", it says, without a hint of exasperation). At some point in the near future, cars will do a safer job of driving than we will.

From the human side, think of how much better off we would be if our cars drove themselves. Of course, you are perfectly capable of driving, finding a compact disc, talking to your friend on the phone, and eating a chicken wing when you drive. But what about those other people? Wouldn't you feel safer if their car was computer controlled? And wouldn't it be better if you could watch a video or catch up on a novel while you commuted home?

The main impediment to self-guided cars won't be technological, it will be emotional. Watch any television commercial to see what I mean. Cars are freedom, sex, competition. Of course, all of this is a myth and driving is ordinarily a misery of road construction, poorly timed traffic lights, and idiots in other cars who won't use their turn signals. Not to mention global warming and foreign wars.

Soon we will have to ask: How many lives each year are to be sacrificed for this illusion? Wouldn't it be better to start giving it up?

I think the first well funded lobbying organization to get on board with my driverless cars campaign will be the Wisconsin Tavern League. Think about it-bars have been hit hard by crackdowns on drunk driving. Wouldn't it be great if you could have that second brandy old fashioned with your perch fry-and hell, even another on the way home-and the only danger would be that you would punch in the wrong destination and end up in Waukegan instead of Waupaca?

Here is a less drastic proposal that noone will like, but that would immediately save lives, money, and fossil fuel. Lets install every car with a device that detects the speed limit on any road by remote sensor. If you passed the speed limit given off by a signal placed in the road, the same annoying sound (but louder) would go off that goes off when you don't fasten your seat belt. The benefits would be safer neighborhoods for kids who have to cross streets, lower insurance rates due to decreased accidents, more effective use of police resources (they wouldn't have to spend time waiting to catch speeders), and an overall savings of fuel, "reducing our dependence on foreign oil". Has anyone figured out the number of barrels of oil each day we spend just so that we can break the law?

The cost of making cars "speeding proof" would easily be offset by the gains I describe. I have never read about such a device, but I am sure someone has thought of it. Why don't we have them? Because its hard to give up on an illusion....

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