As a volunteer firefighter in the town of Pikesville, Maryland, I am forced to recognize the effects of such a distributed population. Years ago, the fire hall was a major influence on a town s unity and events. Dances, dinners, and parades all centered around the station. Memberships flourished, as committed community members were eager to assist their neighbors. Now, in recent years, interest in the fire station has diminished.
Communities lack the unity they once had, and it is difficult to entice citizens to become members.
Most of our members live too far away from the station to make it out in time for an alarm. The community has become increasingly independent, and it is more popular to take a road trip on a Saturday morning than to hang around the fire station with neighbors and friends. One major effect that the automobile had on society was the shift from public to private means of transport. Busses and trolleys are slow relative to cars, and they rarely go exactly to your destination. This privatized means of travel allows people to get where they want to go at the pace that they choose.