A post-car society might actually exist? I would love that!
Too bad it is so far from my own back yard, where people obsess about their cars to the point where they actually honestly believe that your choice of car accurately reveals your character. (Sorry, Honda drivers, you apparently have none.) What about the character of all the people in Japan who don’t have cars? God bless them.
In this article, Newsweek called the gadget-crazy Japanese as people who look down at owning a car as “so 20th century.” Apparently, the automobile is losing its emotional appeal in Japan. Sales fell 7 percent in 2006, if you don’t count the minicar market. It is about time the automobile lost its emotional appeal, if you ask me. Mind you, I don’t mind cars, but I really despise the whole concept of car culture and what it has done to large chunks of the world.
Matthew could surely speak more coherently about this trend in Japan, but I am just here to tell you that the end of car culture might be closer than we think.