Road changing for us all

By Dave Churchill (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published Friday, June 8, 2007

My grandfather had worked with his hands all his life, repairing machinery, upholstering furniture, putting up buildings, gardening. When I was a young boy, I was fascinated by his physical skill and sometimes was lucky enough to help with a project.

In later years, failing knees and advancing age forced grandpa to spend a lot more time just sitting. It was then, when activity was off the table, that he told me stories about his younger days.

I was amazed, one day, to learn that as a boy Grandpa had helped with a cattle drive around the turn of the century, had sat on a horse and herded cows, just like in the books I had read. He had worked farm fields with horses. Later he had driven a Model T and driven trucks on rough, early country roads.

As I look back, I realize now that Grandpa grew to manhood during the time when our country made that gigantic transition from a horse economy to an automobile economy.

This came to mind last week when an acquaintance was questioning me about my recent columns on energy conservation. In defending my statements about the benefits of driving slower, I began to wonder whether we are in a transitional phase now – the beginning of a time when automobiles will give way to something else.

It seems unlikely, to be sure, that we will quickly move away from automobile-based lives. Too many things now depend on our ability to hop in our cars and go at a moment’s notice.

Indeed, most of us would be lost if we could not drive, because our communities are built on the assumption of easy personal transportation. Only a small percentage of our region’s residents live close enough to a grocery store that they can do their shopping without a car. Even fewer live close enough to their workplace to get there and back every day without a motor vehicle. And how about going to the doctor? Or school?

It took decades for essential services to consolidate out of neighborhoods and into central locations that are easily reached only by automobile. It will take many decades for that to change, if it ever does.

But even so, many factors suggest change is in the offing.

Competition, for one. The automobile has come to China and to India, gigantic nations that are striving to reach the same standard of living that Americans enjoy. Their fuel consumption is growing by leaps and bounds. In a world where oil is becoming scarcer even without those millions – or billions – of extra drivers, how long can supplies hold out if consumption triples or quadruples?

And what about emissions? When even the president of the United States, whose administration has long denied the existence of global warming, begins to talk about limiting carbon emissions, it is obvious that something is going to change. And gasoline-burning cars are a big part of the emissions problem.

It is quite possible that, pressed for an answer, industry will soon provide us with all-electric vehicles. But consider those cars’ limitations: perhaps 50 miles between charges, and it takes hours to re-charge. A 60-mile trip to Fargo would become a many-hour journey.

Alternate fuels, such as ethanol, are another possibility. But can the world grow enough corn to make enough ethanol to support all the vehicles in motion now – and still produce enough crops to feed everyone? It seems unlikely.

Are we ready for that kind of change? Certainly not. No one ever is. But change comes whether we like it or not.

Driving 55 may not be the answer. But it might save fuel. It might slow the pace of change. And it looks a lot better than some of the alternatives.

Journal publisher Dave Churchill’s column runs on Fridays.

Journal publisher Dave Churchill’s column runs on Fridays.