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I live in fly-over country, and cars, pretty much all of them, are monstrously large now. I notice the change, even to 15-20 years ago. Just as a small example; the physical experience of just being in a parking lot now, it's gotten really foul. The rooflines of cars parked on the street now block the view outside my local coffee shop. Not sure if this is real, but there seems more of that casual sociopathic driving (weaving in an out of traffic, texting, tailgating, ...). I'm not exaggerating, any given day and I likely see, with my own eyes, the aftermath of a wreck.
It's absolutely insane to me. It's a true saying; "things can always get worse". I feel like we're finding that out now. The public realm is just worse. Straight up. Worse. More deadly, violent, unwelcoming. And it's cars. The only concrete thing really. Big, fast going cars. Slow them down, have them smaller. And immediately, almost from day one, life outside is better.
> whole my-car-is-my-identity culture
This is not projection, it's a core truth. Many americans have reified independence into an extremely specific material _thing_. Big cars. Even if not all, then still enough to hold everybody else hostage.