The problem with cars

There's something that's been playing on my mind for a while. I can't shake the feeling that we're all slightly doomed, and the horseless carriage has something to do with it.

Let me put something to you - a scenario, if you wish:

You're driving (in a car) down a long stretch of road. You're tired and hungry and you could really do with a bite to eat and a cup of coffee. You really should think about finding a place to stay for the night, too.

You see a sign by the side of the road telling you the next town is ten kilometres away. Just a few hundred meters passed that sign, you see a guesthouse. The sign says it offers food, coffee and accommodation. It looks like it could be a perfectly comfortable, serviceable place to stay. It probably has decent coffee for all you know. But...

The next town is 10klm away. You know it's probably going to take you less than ten minutes to get to that town, because you're driving in a car. Do you stop at this place, spend your money on at least a cup of coffee, and thus provide income to the people who are trying to make a living there... Or, do you say "well, it's only ten minutes to the next place, I can wait," and drive straight past?

If you're anything like most people I know, you won't see the point in stopping at some out of the way place when there is the promise of a town so soon on the horizon. It's just ten minutes, right? Why stop? Besides, there's a town up ahead. A civilised, settled place with a choice of shops and accommodation. Why would anyone stay here if they could stay in an actual town?

So, my guess is, you'll probably drive past this place and keep going. You won't stay in their guesthouse. You probably won't even buy their coffee.

If everyone does that, how long can the place survive? Will it still be there for the few errant travellers who might need to take a break at that point? The people travelling by bicycle, for whom 10klm takes a lot longer than ten minutes? The people of dubious continence who might not be able to hold on that long? The small handful of "locals" who live on farming properties and regard this as their nearest coffee shop, even though it's almost 10klm from where they live/work?

Having spent a week travelling by bicycle, I can tell you that when you feel tired and hungry you stop at the nearest place. This location will serve me food and let me sit on an actual chair, therefore I will stop here and not push through for another 10klm just because there is a town up the road. BUT, put a motorised vehicle in the equation, and suddenly your priorities change, and these little places along the way cease to be serious considerations.

I remember, while driving between Charters Towers and Richmond, passing a pub in one of the little places along the way (Pentland? Balfe's Creek? I can't recall), which had a sign out the front pleading: "Drop in and have a feed before we both starve". Of course, I was in a motor vehicle, and didn't intend to stop for anything except a toilet break until I reached the next town...

These "little places along the way" used to be important stops for railways (when trains were slower), or coaches (when there were horses involved), or bicycles (when cycle touring took off before the widespread take-up of the motor vehicle) or - yes - even motor vehicles.

Back in the day, when fuel consumption wasn't so good and the ride wasn't so smooth, you'd want to stop at the little stops instead of pushing through to the next town.

Now, things are so much more "improved", aren't they?

Ah, I don't know. It just seems to me that every time we make an improvement to transport by car, something dies. A service station, a series of shops, a railway line, a town... We just don't want to stop, we want to keep going, and that means someone can't afford to stay "on the way" any more.

Not that we care. We don't even see all of the closed shops along the old highway, because we're so busy driving along the new, improved highway. We don't see all of the places where services stations used to be because our improved fuel economy means we don't have to look for them. And we don't see all the little places to stay along the way, which are slowly going away, because our cars are so comfortable and it's so much easier to just keep going to the next town...

The problem with cars (well, one of the problems with them) is that they change our grasp, which changes how far we try to reach. That's catching up with us (and going to keep catching up with us) in ways we don't even notice.

Sure, it seems like nothing terribly tragic or important but, mark my words, we're doomed. Not in emanate danger of being eaten by an enormous mutant star goat, or anything like that, but doomed none-the-less.