On the road again: Of all the means of transport, the automobile has had the greatest impact on the United States
Image: Picture Alliance
Optimistic to the point of transfiguration: Matthew B. Crawford advocates that driving should be preserved as a domain of individual freedom. He interprets city traffic as the scene of bourgeois friendship.
Of course driving is fun. If, as a rural youth, you can jet off to the nearest big city with your driver’s license; when you have the opportunity to cruise through the American prairies in a rental car, on highways that seem to have been built just for you; spontaneously driving to the sea for a day gives you a feeling that coming-of-age novels and road movies have often tried to capture. You can safely call it freedom.
Jorg Thomann
Editor in the “Life” section of the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sunday newspaper.
consequences
I follow
And of course, driving is horrible. If you as a commuter struggle through traffic jams every day; if you have to look for a parking space downtown; if the workshop charges hundreds of euros for the routine inspection – then it takes a lot of repression to feel free. Added to this is the loss of image that the automobile has suffered, reviled as a CO2 slingshot, as a potential murder weapon for adrenaline-addicted speedsters and as a fetish object, mainly for older men with a growing environmental awareness.