Driving Forward

 Laney Smith is on the right track with yesterday's commentary on VTDigger. We must drive less. The ecological problem requires it. Driving a car is only a part of the problem. There is the plowing, salting, sanding, painting, repairing, and reconstruction of the road, all of which have environmental and economic impacts. The road is a scar and barrier on the surface of the planet.  And then there is the existence of the car itself.

I know. I too have lived my whole life as a car user. It's hard to imagine living in Vermont without a car. But I have gone long stretches without regularly using a car and visited car-free places. People live there without the worry and expense of trying to keep up with the high-consuming Joneses.

Getting to car freedom is accomplished in discrete decisions: buy a car, or not; join a carsharing club, or not. It is not the smooth trajectory that macroeconomists tend to deal with. We must understand that as we go forward, deliberately and with all possible speed to a new economy. It's a moonshot, not a march up a mountain.