The suburban sprawl model that has temporarily replaced these forms must be understood to be an aberration, an extreme and abnormal condition, as cancer is an abnormal condition in the tissues of the human body. The original benefits of automobiles were thought to be convenience, freedom of mobility, and comfort. The first two things vanished entirely under the regime of compulsory commuting. What is left of comfort amounts to little more than air-conditioned imprisonment. I believe that our utter dependence on the automobile must and will come to an end.
Society can no longer afford the cultural phenomenon of mandatory mass car ownership.
Whatever cars might run in the future, we will have to use fewer of them and less often. We are going to need places that are worth dwelling in, from which we won't feel compelled to escape every moment we are not working. These are precisely the kinds of villages, towns, and cities I propose, and I will spell out the particulars of their design in later chapters. I believe that we Americans have managed to go beyond driving ourselves crazy with cars. There is a moral and spiritual dimension to these problems that we are unable to reckon.