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<blockquote data-quote="Hermetic Seal" data-source="post: 1422203" data-attributes="member: 10915">I wonder if part of it comes from mid-century optimism about continued advancement in transportation. When the highway system and suburbs were built in the 50s, this was also the peak of science-fiction optimism about the future, and people likely assumed that advances like flying cars and other super-fast transportation systems would make distance a minor consideration.Unfortunately, none of these things ever happened and our transportation capacities are no better now than they were sixty or seventy years ago. But many of us are stuck living in communities planned with the expectation of continuous improvement that never came. There&#039;s a metaphor in there somewhere.It&#039;s funny how &quot;space age&quot; people thought we&#039;d have jetpacks but never really anticipated anything like smartphones. All the innovation happened with (mostly destructive) communications technology, not transportation.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Hermetic Seal, post: 1422203, member: 10915"] I wonder if part of it comes from mid-century optimism about continued advancement in transportation. When the highway system and suburbs were built in the 50s, this was also the peak of science-fiction optimism about the future, and people likely assumed that advances like flying cars and other super-fast transportation systems would make distance a minor consideration. Unfortunately, none of these things ever happened and our transportation capacities are no better now than they were sixty or seventy years ago. But many of us are stuck living in communities planned with the expectation of continuous improvement that never came. There's a metaphor in there somewhere. It's funny how "space age" people thought we'd have jetpacks but never really anticipated anything like smartphones. All the innovation happened with (mostly destructive) communications technology, not transportation. [/QUOTE]

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