So we hit the debt limit...

[Valmy]

So how did you manage to colonise it before 1908 ?

We were obsessed with horses back then but we seem to have forgotten how to ride them.

Anyway the cities were designed completely differently prior to WWII.

[MadImmortalMan]

So how did you manage to colonise it before 1908 ?

We were obsessed with horses back then but we seem to have forgotten how to ride them.

Anyway the cities were designed completely differently prior to WWII.

I bet widespread use of horse transportation in modern times would do a lot more environmental damage than cars do now.

[Neil]

I bet widespread use of horse transportation in modern times would do a lot more environmental damage than cars do now.

That is correct.

[mongers]

So how did you manage to colonise it before 1908 ?

We were obsessed with horses back then but we seem to have forgotten how to ride them.

Anyway the cities were designed completely differently prior to WWII.

I think you're both missing the huge roll the railroads had in building the USA.

[Valmy]

I think you're both missing the huge roll the railroads had in building the USA.

Cars did not replace railroads.  Airplanes did.

[mongers]

I think you're both missing the huge roll the railroads had in building the USA.

Cars did not replace railroads.  Airplanes did.

Which was my point, the choice wasn't between cars and going back to horses, there were other signifcant forms of transport and quite possibly the absolute importance of cars in the future may change.

[Neil]

Which was my point, the choice wasn't between cars and going back to horses, there were other signifcant forms of transport and quite possibly the absolute importance of cars in the future may change.

Who was going to take a train from home to their work every day?  The whole point of adopting the car was to be able to live someplace decent.

[MadImmortalMan]

I think you're both missing the huge roll the railroads had in building the USA.

Cars did not replace railroads.  Airplanes did.

Which was my point, the choice wasn't between cars and going back to horses, there were other signifcant forms of transport and quite possibly the absolute importance of cars in the future may change.

There are different types of transportation. The point Valmy (and Neil) makes is a valid one. A train won't take you to your front door. Or the supermarket. Neither will an aircraft. A horse will.

[The Brain]

A horse will take you to heaven and back.

[HVC]

A horse will take you to heaven and back.

[Zanza2]

How did the thread derail from government debt to mobility habits?

[Malthus]

How did the thread derail from government debt to mobility habits?

And worse. So much worse. 

[Slargos]

How did the thread derail from government debt to mobility habits?

The usual. The Americans can't stand it when that particular nerve is prodded and so they change the subject. 

[HVC]

How did the thread derail from government debt to mobility habits?

The usual. The Americans can't stand it when that particular nerve is prodded and so they change the subject. 

Canadian

[Josquius]

Which was my point, the choice wasn't between cars and going back to horses, there were other signifcant forms of transport and quite possibly the absolute importance of cars in the future may change.

Who was going to take a train from home to their work every day?  The whole point of adopting the car was to be able to live someplace decent.

Loads of people take a train or a metro or bus to work.

In the future I do see patterns of habitation changing quite drastically to hug the railway routes a lot more.