But they don't themselves debate the general issue of mobility in their communities or shape transportation policy. However, suppose there was a citizen-run Public Mobility Commission in charge of these matters. Members would have a clearer and more immediate picture of the relationships among sprawl, congestion and pollution, and a more acute sensitivity to the trade-offs involved. The immediate focus would be on the local, because that is the scale at which the deep roots of direct democracy can best be nurtured. On the contrary, it might just be non-utopian enough to work.
Utopian communities are implausible in fiction, and generally fail in real life, for two reasons.
First, in seeking perfection they deliberately try to expunge politics from the life of the community, yet politics is inevitable because it is the response to human conflict. Second, the visions expressed in utopian works and communities are so pure that they exclude most people. All but a faithful or fanatic handful find something too objectionable about such visions to take part. In contrast, direct democracy rests on pluralism and inclusion, seeks to transform conflict into community bonds, and strives to honor differences while exploring them in the process of seeking common ground. People aren't interested.