Exploring America with the Automobile

Of our three readings, James Peacock's The Anthropological Lens, was my least favorite but most informative. I enjoyed reading John Jakle's article on how the American landscape was reshaped by and for cars. I have traveled the United States many times from coast to coast, and until taking this class, I never actually thought about the relationship we have with our cars, or how the automobile and the highways have developed each other. While out in public, it seems everything has been built around the automobile. Even our houses have a place for our car, a garage. Our National Parks are built to invite the automobile and its’ passenger to explore. Yellowstone has roads leading you to Old Faithful Geyser. Mount Rushmore has parking at the base of the faces. Glacier National Park has roads taking you to the middle of nowhere. Some wild animal parks have roads instead of walkways, driving through the habitats of dangerous animals. In Northern California we drove our Toyota sequoia through a sequoia. Many of our state parks and national parks are designed for our cars. If they didn’t design these attractions so that our cars could enter and explore, they wouldn’t attract as many people as they do. Imagine if you had to hike into Yellowstone National Park, I doubt that they would get the two million visitors that visit the park every year.
Interstate highways, which are like arteries, keep the flow of automobiles and trucks constantly moving across the nation. The arteries feed the veins, which in this case, would be highways and streets. These highways and streets are what keep our country alive and vibrant. Take away our interstates highways and streets, and you have a crippled nation. Our interstate highways and freeways have also hurt many towns. The traffic that had to travel through small towns gave way to the interstates, restaurants and stores lost the tourism that kept a lot of these small towns alive. The interstate and highways became so important that if a house or private land was preventing a highway pass, the Department of Transportation evicted people from their land and houses. I’ve seen a lot of the effects of interstates. On one of my trips, I tried to stay off the interstate as much as possible. The interstates have McDonald, Burger king, Wal-Mart, and miles of strip malls. The back roads have culture, originality. Sights are different on back roads, not a cookie cutter look. I don’t have to explain that to you all. We live in an area that is back roads.
When we go some where it is usually by car. Even if we are taking the train or plane, we take a taxi or a friend drives us to the airport or train station. The automobile is second nature. If a person doesn’t have a car, they are asking for a ride. Our society economically is even formed around the car. I think the car in the future will know more about us than we will. Receptors in our brain communicating with our car about the events and travels that need to be fulfilled everyday. Who knows? Maybe someday we will be altered to fit our car. From stop signs to underground parking garages, our everyday lives are about the car.