cartky.org

I admit it. I'm spoiled. I'm a middle-aged American, and therefore I should be among the most mobile people on the planet. But it's just not true. None of us are. Even with our cars and 5 expressway spurs leading into Louisville, we're less mobile than people in other countries. This has huge consequences for our economy.

I got to see the film "Whisper of the Heart" over the weekend, which is about a 14 year old girl growing up in Tama New Town in Western Tokyo. The film is a window into life in the city's urban design.  What struck me was the incredible mobility of the people in the film. It's not just that the main character is a child and yet can go most places, but that she can go anywhere she can imagine, at any time. She mixes travel modes - she walks, she takes transit, she gets rides from friends (bike-rack and car). This is not a movie about transit. This is just how these people live. It's an unremarkable background that only appears because it's slightly more interesting to the director than having the characters seated on sofas.

This weekend I was snowed in, so my normal modes of travel were cut to just walking. I had a lot of time to reflect on my mobility; I found that it's not that good compared to the Japanese girl's. There are plenty of trips that I defer or don't consider due to stress, distance, traffic, weather, or time.  Licensed motorists in America aren't just beaten by the mobility of a 14 year old Japanese girl, we're lapped by her. It's no contest.

We owe it to ourselves to get our butts in gear and create alternatives to driving. We need to rally for smart land use. The status quo is not just hurting children, the poor, the elderly, and people with disabilities, but it's also hurting "average" motorized adults. Because every Louisvillian deals with stress, traffic, weather, and crime, it's easy to grow desensitized. Check out the movie, and re-sensitize yourself!