Road notes

There is lot of road between the North Country and Maryland underserved by public radio, providing the traveler prolonged opportunities for contemplation. As I zipped along the endless pavement in concert with thousands of other drivers, it occurred to me what a backward solution we have arrived at for the problem of getting from place to place in a hurry. The problem, as I see it, is that we are slow, and we get tired. Neolithic man took the first whack at this problem. Some early genius noticed that other animals ran faster, climbed on top of one, and bullied it into going his way. There must have been a learning curve--saber-tooth? No. Horse? Not too bad!

But it's not our lot to be satisfied with incremental improvements. Smooth roads would help--so we have paved 1% of the surface of the continental US. Wheeled vehicles?--pretty efficient--so 2% of all our labor and a bigger chunk of our income goes into building, buying and feeding cars and trucks. Cheap high-power fuel?--drill out 100 million years of fossil carbon and torch it all off in the blink of a geological eye. And we need garages and bridges and car stereos and diners and drive-thru wedding chapels and malls. We spend hours commuting and zip around like mosquitoes all day.

Seems pretty Rube Goldberg. Think if all that effort, treasure and resources spent over the centuries had gone into learning how to run faster and longer. We could probably run 45 miles per hour for ten hours at a crack. We might have learned how to fly like Superman does. Instead we're stuck with all this scrap metal. Are we there yet?