Times Have Changed: The Automobile, Social Values and Dating
Have you ever looked closely at historic images of cities, say
from the 1930's? The social atmosphere is very different. The
fronts of buildings were positioned close to the sidewalk,
families lived close to the center of town with a place to sit
outside to greet the passersby, and the traffic was chiefly
pedestrian. As a result, dating has drastically been affected by
modern changes in the past 50 years.
The pedestrian and social enemy, the automobile: Since the
invention of the automobile, designers and builders had to make
space for parking. Well, this was a challenge at best as each
automobile requires around one hundred square feet. A person
requires approximately four square feet of space. Vehicular
lanes had to be accommodated, restricting space for pedestrians,
and adding vehicular and pedestrian conflict. Moreover, the
vehicle is now regarded as the most important component of our
transportation infrastructure with regard to safety and
efficiency. What does this do to our social space? After the
engineers design a street, and the builders accommodate the
parking at the front of the buildings, the once social space
turns into dead, vehicular only, depressing places. Imagine
walking next to the parking lot of a shopping mall, next to a
six lane arterial highway. Not much chance that you will find
another pedestrian with which to rub shoulders. Conversely, a
historic place such as Boston, is packed with life, and very
little suburbs. In suburbia, the place to find your next date,
the Circle K convenience store.
Prior to the proliferation of the automobile, people met on the
streets. Pedestrians filled the streets with life that we can
easily imagine, and is demonstrated in most historic cities
around the world. In the historic town of Ybor City in Tampa, an
old Cuban cigar manufacturing city, the workers had little
houses called "casitas" which exhibited high ceilings, raised
floor for air convection, and a quaint and approachable front
porch. Every Saturday, the family would walk to the center of
town to meet the neighbors, rub shoulders with others, and do
the weekly shopping. Vehicles were not necessary, neither were
large houses. The outside public spaces served as an extension
of the interior space of their homes. This experience is still
shared in many towns in Europe.
How are we easily able to meet new people during these modern
times of suburbs, proliferation of the automobile, and a new
understanding of an internal world. Computers and cell phones
have been the crutch for the absence of social places. It would
be nice to revive the values we once had, on the safe pedestrian
filled streets and plazas.