Jive-Bomber submitted a new blog post: Back on the Magic Highway USA Continue reading the Original Blog Post
These animators severely underestimated the cost of infrastructure and the desire of people to have the landscape dominated by huge enclosed highways. Back when energy was essentially free, this may have seemed like a good idea?
Some of the predicted details were off but it's spot on in the broader sense that the automobile was and would continue to be the prime shaper of our culture and lifestyle.
Hello, Nice find of that old film. It seems like it was made to be included in the Tomorrowland displays at Disneyland back then. We were all in awe of what was proposed or in the design world. But, that “Rocket to The Moon” ride was just as thrilling. If we think about what has taken place in cars since 1958, it has been good and bad. The periods of good certainly override the bad times in auto history. Those self propelled/driven cars were futuristic, but lack what we grew up with as far as the feel of the power behind the motors, the shifting, and the exhaust sounds. These days those electric powered cars are a little shaky with their limitations. Yes, the nature/future/ecologists will have and are having a field day crapping on old technology vs the new electric power and possible self driving cars that still run into things, today. When the “brown” outs of the hot summers come along and the electric usage goes sky high enough to shut down the power grids, are electric cars handy or necessary? Jnaki Our car history has come a long way. Technology has improved the old hot rods into power, handling, and accessories to get from one place to another. But, it is still the individual that harnesses that power to make their driving better and comfortable. No distractions should be allowed in any moving vehicle. For us, the sound of the power is really nice on the old hot rod/drag racing ears. Besides, what happened to conversations or just listening to the person in the next seat? We are not that far along in development to harness technology without sacrificing the simple technology of conversation or communications.
I noticed something missing through the whole thing: People. There were very few cars on the road and very few people in the scenes. Since that piece was produced, the USA population has grown from 160MM to over 320MM, and the world from ~2BB to 7BB. It is already way more crowded than they foresaw. Simple arithmetic says we will eventually run out of space and resources if we don't get our act together. Sooner or later, one way or another, our growth has to stop, unless we start to inhabit other worlds. That's quite a way off yet. OK, that rant was somewhat off topic. More relevant: traffic jams, packed hiways. I saw neither in the movie, but still it was fun to see what they thought 60 years ago.
I’d argue the fact that we are over populated. Those problems are more evident on the east, west and southern coasts. Take a trip into the heart of America. Lots of green space out here.
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