Why the Car Must Go

“Is our modern mobility sustainable? We are facing an energy crisis, a climate crisis, and an economic crisis—and perhaps a mobility crisis as well.” An urban studies professor on the car. “Amid road construction and honking horns, the vaunted freedom of the open road has long since vanished in the rear-view mirror,” says professor Brian Ladd. “If we continue to fill our cities—not just London and Los Angeles, but also Mumbai and Shanghai—with cars, we will be left with little mobility and barely functional cities. Which brings us to the state of the auto industry. Although the crisis of the American automobile manufacturers has many causes, its resolution may founder on the crisis of mobility.”