In Washington, DC, where I grew up, plans to bury large swaths of the city under ribbons of unnecesary freeway catalyzed a massive grassroots movement in the 1960s and 70s. That the city retains its sylvan character is a testament to this movement. Instead of continuing to build gridlock-prone highways, the city spent billions of dollars to design and build a first-class subway system. As Zachary M. Schrag put it:

Dreaming of a beautiful, efficient, democratic, growing capital, [Washingtonians] have tried to build a beautiful, efficient, democratic, growing rail system. That Metro serves so many functions so well marks it as a triumph of democratic consensus. In 1970 the Washington Post described Metro as "the last best chance to make this metropolitan area a decent place to live in the future."

Since moving to the "New South" hamlet where I now reside, I've really begun to realize how good we had it in DC. Nashville's not as bad as some cities I've visited, but its populace has clearly subscribed to the idea that the automobile is the only worthwhile form of transportation. Once centrally located on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, the city now has no passenger rail service. (The city's decaying Union Station was finally converted to a luxury hotel in the 1980s.) Once serviced by a fairly extensive network of streetcars going to a variety of destinations, the city now has no commuter rail or light rail. Buses, which were touted in the 1940s as quieter, faster, and more modern replacements for the streetcars, are now seen as transit of last resort for the poor and downtrodden.

While plans to open a single (federally-subsidized) commuter rail line have been tied up in political wrangling, the state has foged ahead on plans to build a massive 186-mile circumferential highway around the city, pushing sprawl further out into the countryside.

People here just don't get it. You can barely survive in this city without a car. Fewer than 1% of Tennesseans use public transportation to get to work, and even those who would be willing to are unable to find convienient ways to do so.

Which brings me to the point of this little diatribe. In her fascinating article Without a Car in the World, Jane Holtz Kay describes a five-year experiment in "life-sans-automobile." She notes that urban geographies take on an entirely different meaning when not encountered through the eyes of a speeding SUV:

One spring day in my car-free life, a new friend took me on a ride to trace the geography of my childhood and child-rearing days in my home town. In only ten minutes, we traversed the arc of my life: by the courtyard apartment where I grew up in an intimate, sidewalk community...up a hill to the small house on a dead-end street where I reared my children...past the home of my high school days, just paces from the classroom. In short order, we had swung by the library, the corner store, the town swimming pool, my sister's house. "You have lived your life in such a small space," my friend, a planner, said thoughtfully.

"Small…," I said. It had seemed universe enough. Not small at all to a child on foot. Not small to an adolescent or young mother. Not in the detail, the change, the shifting drift of streets, the palette of tree and vegetation, the variety of architecture, the scale of windows, the ornament of accretions through the years. Each locale, each corner, each doorway had meaning and actuality. Each segment had a rich and diverse presence as I walked from store to school to playground. To me, the arc was large as life: It was built at a walker's pace, and paced it I had. Its mobility was the pedestrian's--the person's--mobility, shifting, evolving, engaging eye and mind. How different from carbound America's hypermobility, the endless passing of faceless places.

Something to think about. Personally, while I own a used pickup truck, the idea minimizing its use and avoiding the hassles of traffic, parking, and trips to the mechanic is very appealing. But it's really a chicken and egg problem -- public transportation doesn't improve until people see its benefits, and people don't see its benefits unless they have a good public transportation system. Maybe one of these days folks will get a clue about this -- in the meantime, I'll have to get my subway fix when I visit Boston or DC.