Highways and transportation technologies conquer both mud and distance. We must face the fact that the dominant technologies of this century have been isolating technologies. Automobiles, air conditioning, television and other mass communication technologies may have made life convenient, comfortable and entertaining and informed, but they have isolated people from their neighbors. While people are secure and comfortable in their own air-conditioned living rooms, watching their TVs, they are not interacting with folks next door. Technology isolates urban people from the messiness and unpredictability of Nature.
Time is measured digitally, right down to nanoseconds.
Precision and punctuality are virtues of the technological environment. Control your schedule, eliminate interruptions, and you control your life. People exist to serve machines which were designed to be convenient for humans. Mobility has also contributed to fragmentation of communities. These are the parents who rush around chauffeuring multiple children to multiple activities all occurring in the afternoon following school or on the weekend.