Journalist Believes The Government Forces Us To Drive Automobiles - Is That True?

Sad story but America builds roads to accommodate what its populace wants... freedom to come and go whenever they want. I drive senior citizens who are too old to drive to various appointments, social gatherings, etc and to a person the one day they talk about most and remember most is the day someone (usually a relative) took away their car keys for good. The vast majority of people want to drive, to be in control of their time and movement. A real problem is that driver's ed is no longer taught, penalties for driving under the influence are not severe enough (though getting tougher), phone and texting while driving, plus less civility (me first) toward other drivers and pedestrians.

Kudos to you for your volunteer work !!

Wow, is this a reach. Eisenhour saw the autobahn in Germany and was inspired to buid the interstate highway system - not ot "force" us into cars, but as a way to efficiently travel in a very large landmass that is the US which has far less population density than Europe or Japan. It is actually very democratic. And to say the government "forced" large yards on us through zoning is laughable. It IS market driven Mass transist works in NY and Chicago, but few other places.

The articles fails to address how the Amish survive these days without cars.

You make your choices and have to live with it.

Who wants to live like the Amish? No electricity, no phones, no anything.

This another guy who wants to dictate how others live as he is superior to them.

The average "atomic" family is more spread out today. Most people work, shop outside of their immediate community. Think about how many more people work 30-60min (hwy) away from their homes today. Whereas, the Amish produce their own or get most of what they need within their community - rarely needing to travel long distances.

And America's road & highway system is a viscous circle of need vs necessity. Politicians & other various state govts have effectively connected annual taxes to highway maintenance via fees for fuel consumption. The more people buy ICE vehicles, those fuel get purchased, which feeds tax money into the highway system. And since we depend less on the railway shipping, there are more deliveries made via semi-trucks needing fuel as well.

Yes Eisenhower was impressed seeing the German autobahn. But he wanted to build a U.S. interstate on the basic premise of having a fast, direct and reliable highway rout to move U.S. military vehicles, tanks and material.

This is all about fascist-socialists hellbent on destroying commerce and opportunity.

I am confused. Trump and many republicans are by definition, fascists. No rule of law, no checks and balances, the free press is the enemy becasue all opinions should come from Herr Leader.
Bernie is a socialist. The Nordic countries are broadly socialist, yet have booming economies, longer life expectancies and usually show up at the top of the lists of happiest populations on the planet.

Don't be confused Truthy. If you look at the definition of fascist "...dictatorial power, forcible suppression of opposition and strong regimentation of society and of the economy..." you have the Democrats summed up.

I do not know how many here were alive at the Beginning of the Interstate Highways - but at the beginning - they were a real mess - because most of the ways they "connected" to each other through different states took time to accomplish. Now - the one Major part of the system - the Highway from Philadelphia to NYC - Running over the top of NJ - would cost more than the WHOLE rest of the system combined due to property values it will never happen.
If it was build to move military equipment - they had a lot of detours to go through.

But In 1955 - cars themselves were not really long distance runners - and long trips MIGHT have been a couple hundred miles - a REALLY long trip - NYC to Niagara falls was about it. THe cars really did not take to much longer. THat did not happen until the late 60's.

As far as the Amish - remember - they actually have a choice today - but MOST do use electricity, most have phones - some even cell phones (To keep them out of the house) and of course - some of those Carriages are actually air conditioned too

My great-grandfather is fond of pointing out "the old road" and the "old old road" when we drive to LA. If you have a competent off-roader, you can actually still drive parts of the "Grapevine" now Interstate 5. I have pictures of us on the Old Highway 99 down in Salton City which has been replaced by the 86S. He often accompanies me to New Mexico (I go there about once a month) and we've taken some "old road" detours.