I spent the first half of this year over in Houston. What can I say about it but "it's big" - it's massive. Texas is bigger than France, which in itself is twice the size of the UK. The city of Houston is bigger than Israel. It's not the kind of place where you can just walk down to the shops. It's also very very hot and humid. It's a city that has only sprung up as a result of two inventions; the car and the air conditioning unit. Before those it would have been unliveable, which is why there's hardly anything in the city that was there before 1950.
Aside from downtown and a couple of other areas (the Galleria and the medical centre) nothing is over 2 floors tall. They don't build up they build out. I couldn't get over quite how far you had to drive to get out of Houston and into the country.
And one thing I discovered is that you can't get anywhere without a car. I was living just outside the downtown area so whilst I could walk to the office in a few minutes I couldn't get to a shopping centre without a car. There's a mall in downtown but it closes at the weekend because no-one's there. There's a nod in the direction of public transport in the form of a tram that runs from downtown to the Reliant stadium, which was put in solely for the superbowl (yes, the Janet Jackson one) and that's all it does - trundles up and down from the football ground where nobody goes to the city centre where no-one lives. I couldn't even tell you where Houston station was, or even if it had one.
And it's partly due to the size of the place and partly down to the heat and humidity that Houstonians rely so much on their cars. In the summer you can't walk anywhere without being literally drenched in sweat, even if you had anywhere to walk. You get into your car in your garage and put on the air conditioning, you drive to work (maybe stopping at the drive through bank and drive through Starbucks on the way) and park in an indoor garage and pop into the office. On the way home you do the same thing.
So what do you get when you cross a baron state the size of a large country with 40 degree temperatures, 100 percent humidity, cheap cars and cheaper oil? Houston - a car that couldn't exist without the car and the air conditioner.
Now people are abandoning their cars and walking. How far are they going to get in that heat and that chaos before the hurricane hits? I can't help thinking they would have been better battoning down the hatches and sitting tight in Houston.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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a car that couldn't exist without the car and the air conditioner.
That's "a city that couldn't exist without the car and the air conditioner" - hmm freudian.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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E34kid
I second this opinion entirely.
Some years ago, although I was 'only' a tourist and 'only' went to places in the mid-west and the west coast in July, America is not designed for walking. It is a thoroughly unpleasant experience. Very few people live just around the block from something.
Walking somewhere simply takes forever. Most of Los Angeles is somewhere to avoid - it looks decrepit. Definitely use a car to between the nice bits otherwise you might never get there.
To escape a disaster such as a hurricane as my parents had to do in the 1960s (Florida). Just drive.
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Interesting responses:
Colin - Just to be clear I wasn't suggesting that buses, trains etc. could ever replace the car entirely; more making the point that because there appears to be little/no alternative to cars in large parts of the US events such as these occur.
E34 - just been listening to a resident of Houston who (paraphrasing) reckons the problem is being exacerbated because
a) too many people, not at significant risk, are leaving due to an understandable overreaction to the tragedy in Louisiana.
b) most of the people have blindly decided to use the major routes rather than the numerous smaller alternatives which he claims exist and which he will use if he has to.
I'm wondering just how much the combination of a total reliance on cars (for all the reasons you mention) and a population who perhaps understandably haven't thought it through is compounding these problems.
BTW - What I'm not doing (just in case anyone feels I am) is gloating or preaching some sort of anti-car or anti US agenda. Far from it! I feel genuinely sorry for all those people but do think the US has to wake up to what's going on in the world, bite the bullet and take concerted action to address some of the root causes of the sort of events we've all been witnessing.
Having said that, I'm would we fare much (if at all) better were we the victims of equivalent (proportionately) size?
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"Having said that, I'm would we fare much (if at all) better were we the victims of equivalent (proportionately) size?"
Given the fact that 2" of snow causes paralsys, I can safely assure you we wouldnt fare any better - far worse in fact.
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Absolutely. The problem isn't that there's an overreliance on cars. The problem is that the entire population of Houston (now joined by the entire populations of Galveston and Texas City) are all trying to leave and head in the same general direction, taking as much as they can with them.
It would bring any city and any transport infrastructure to its knees. The I45 was designed to handle normal everyday traffic with enough capacity to cope in the rush hours. At no point did the transport designers ever consider the possibility that two million people would try and get to Dallas at the same time. Imagine the entire population of London trying to get to Birmingham - the situation would be identical. Some people could do it by train, but just like the roads the capacity simply isn't there. There is no way to move millions of people from one city to another overnight.
Houston is on low-lying flat land but it's not below sea level and it's not on the coast. I can't see it being another New Orleans - the danger is more from the wind (famous last words). Personally, I'd be sitting tight in an internal room with no windows while the hurricane passed, rather than trying to get out of the city and risking being stuck en-route when it hit.
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Life is complex; it has real and imaginary parts.
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I understand that this is one of the largest and most powerfull hurricanes ever to make landfall on US soil. I also believe that the US has not experienced two such hurricanes in such close sucession for 100 years. I wonder whether any of this will help them to reassess there views on the impacts of Global Warming?
I also wonder whether the negative impact of this years hurricane season will push Americans towards reviewing their complacency towards energy waste?
I lived in Houston and New York for 3 years and I loved every minute of it however the ability of the average American to "just look the other way" is astounding.(Eg Black V White & Rich V Poor)
Ask a Houstonian to walk across the road and they will look at you as if you are from Mars:
Ask a New Yorker to recycle just 10% of their household waste and they will as why..and mean it!
As a footnote I should say I have a great respect for the US can do attitude to life as well as their diverse people. However times are a changing and they need to think about their future direction when it comes to car use and energy waste.
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\" Keep doing the same old thing, youll get the same old thing, try something different today!\"
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OOpps They will as why should read "Will asK why?
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WHy the fuss? The American population is acting to type.
Mass panics on radio broadcast of "War of teh Worlds" with Orson Welles iirc.
And if you watched Independence Day, cities panicked, left by cars and had huge traffic jams. Ditto the film about giant meteor strikes and tsunamis..(name forgotten Alzheimers?)
If they are shown it on film, that's how they will act.. :-)
madf
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Panic is not unique to Americans.
Remember just a week ago the thread on panic buying of fuel...
At least the Americans have something serious to panic about.
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Panic is not unique to Americans. Remember just a week ago the thread on panic buying of fuel... At least the Americans have something serious to panic about.
Panic buying of fuel was utterly ridiculous and precipitated by the low-grade media. Only a few bird-brains fell for it - the majority were more reserved. The Americans would have fallen for it.
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Mattster
Boycott shoddy build and reliability.
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Of course, without wishing to drag this back into the panic buying thread, you can smugly say with hindsight that it was wrong to panic buy.
However your circumstances may differ from others (reliance on wheels), and had there been a shortage (even one brought about by the panickers) then those who panic-bought would have been able to be the smug ones.
I would agree that the media is responsible for a lot of what goes on but, like it or not, it's there to stay.
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Panic buying of fuel was utterly ridiculous and precipitated by the low-grade media. Only a few bird-brains fell for it - the majority were more reserved. The Americans would have fallen for it. -- Mattster Boycott shoddy build and reliability.
Don't forget the people (like me) who have to fill-up 3 or 4 times a week - use alternative methods of transport - not possible.
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I understand that this is one of the largest and most powerfull hurricanes ever to make landfall on US soil. I also believe that the US has not experienced two such hurricanes in such close sucession for 100 years. I wonder whether any of this will help them to reassess there views on the impacts of Global Warming?
What caused two in quick succession 100 years ago, then?
I'm not commenting on whether or not we have contributed to changes in weather patterns, but nothing we have experienced in my lifetime is without precedent. We cannot blame everything on global warming, and by inference our use of cars.
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Well as far as I'm concerned the jury is still out on whether global warming is the root cause of these things but I don't think there's much doubt that emissions aren't helping matters.
Anyway, my point was not really about emissions from the burning of fossil fuels causing hurricanes but the US's massive reliance on cars hampering their ability to cope with such disasters.
RF made the point that things can grind to halt here when we have a little snow, however the events in Houston are happening well BEFORE the hurricane hits. There is currently no disaster yet it seems the transport 'system' has ground to a halt and (amongst other things) is very likely going to make the outcome of this event worse than it need have been.
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To be fair to the Americans, it would be impossible to build any transport system that could move a whole population quickly and at short notice, unless you covered the entire country in tarmac or rail lines.
Any part of the infrastructure can realistically only be built to cope with the norm plus a bit of slack for emergencies. It would be the same if the entire nation all went sick at once, no health system could cope with that level of demand.
I think we would be in worse trouble than the US if such a disaster were to hit here, simply because there are far fewer areas that could cope with the influx from several large cities at once.
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Just to add - apparently there are about 2m people trying to head out of Houston which equates to about the number who commute to/from London by train etc. every day. No, it's not inyended to be and is far from a fair comparison, but if there was a decent rail system into/out of Houston for example many people (knowing gridlock on the roads was inevitable) would have at least had the chance to use it or could have even been forced to use it. Furthermore, unlike all the privately owned cars now tragically stuck in the middle of nowhere, any trains, buses etc. would have been used to ferry people out of the area to safety again and again - not just once.
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The London rail system can handle 2 million people all trying to go in the same direction all at the same time?. That is very impressive.
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Well what you do differently, volvoman?. Say you had to evacuate your home, taking your family and a few prized possesions with you to the closest "save haven" hundreds of miles away.
Would you walk to the nearest bus-stop and sit quietly there waiting for a bus that is likely to be filled with others who also need to evacuate?.
And just so I am not picking on you, how would anyone deal with the situation, without the use of their car?. Would they honestly rely on public transportation if their life depended on it?.
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trancer: a couple of suitcases should do. The storm is still some distance off, isn't it? BTW, some parts of USA did have viable public transport systems: however General Motors bought them. And closed them very soon after. There are still some US public transport systems: Boston has a busy underground as does NY. London : 10% of personnel enter by car. Presumably some walk, many cycle, but most use public transport or taxi.
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I sure hope Hank Jones, my American buddy doesn't read this thread. He'd be a mite offended fo' sure.
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Adam
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I think a film called day after tomorrow,though only a film,may not be as far from the truth as with what is happening in this world,though I am now convinced it is not cars that is the cause.Bearing in mind aircraft must use more fuel than any amount of cars--But dont think US did enough anyway,surely richest country in the world would look ahead and try to prevent this type of disaster,seems not!.mind you would our government
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Steve
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Bearing in mind aircraft must use morefuel than any amount of cars--But dont think US did enough anyway,surely richest country in the world would look ahead and try to prevent this type of disaster,seems not!.mind you would our government -- Steve
I read recently that one flight by a jumbo sized aircraft, flying from london to Sydney, discharges more emissions than 10,000 family sized cars during their lifetime (the car's lifetime, that is).
Plus, of course, certain people who think they are so important that they have to use helicopters instead of cars. what are the emissions (and fuel usage) on a typical helicopter journey of, say, 100 miles compared with the emissions of a family car?
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"I also believe that the US has not experienced two such hurricanes in such close sucession for 100 years. I wonder whether any of this will help them to reassess there views on the impacts of Global Warming?"
Things like this seem to stick in the memory once they are in there. So, for the record, since this statement was made (when it was accurate), Rita has been downgraded to Category 3. Thus, this statement certainly no longer applies. Storm seasons like this have happened plenty of times.
V
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