It's very difficult to survive without a car now - and that can't be a good thing. Sure, there are some advantages too*, but I wouldn't neccessarily state that they are "far more important" than those aspects of life that we have given up.

As I watch traffic around here get worse and watch mass trasit initiatives spin their wheels, I am more and more away of the mixed blessing of the automobile. It seems like an implementation issue, though. There are small towns where the elderly can walk to the store or take a bus there. They just don't seem to be in the car and freeway-fixated country I live in. I've fallen into the trap. Moving out west from Boston years ago, I can no longer walk down the block to the local pizza shop. More things require a drive.

To balance this out, though, I'm going to guess that most of the ranchers in Two Dot, Montana -- a very small town -- are *real* glad that the automobile (and pickup truck) were invented.

Yes, where would I put my Empeg on that horse? Oh, and if we absolutely had to wind the clok back to 1902, some of those elderly folks wouldn't be walking to the store. they'd be pushing up daisies after succumbing to pneumonia in a pre-antibiotic world (another mixed blessing).