WHOA! A friend suggested "walkpooling" for school children in the Dearborn Sustainability Master Plan, and I then remembered this 2007 Saturn Ion commercial where all the kids and a bus driver were walking on the street sans the bus (at 0:39 seconds):
Watching it again with a new paradigm for walkability in cities, a better understanding of infrastructure and sustainability, I can't help but think that it's a bit ironic and hope that it's a bit prophetic too. You may ask, "Ironic?" Think about it, this commercial came from a car company--even though I owned a Saturn and loved it--much of our road infrastructure and city planning (especially for those living in Michigan--even more so for those in Southeast Michigan) was designed around car transportation by the push of the Automotive industry.
Feel free to converse with me in person about the gritty details, I think a lot of people in the Automotive sector are trying to do the right thing at this time (though it may be a bit late) and don't want to unfairly characterize the efforts of the people who are doing good by giving the darker aspects of the company's (GM's) history here). That said, James Kettering (of GM and also Kettering University's namesake) had a big role to play in shaping a worldview for consumerism, and I suspect not being able to afford a new car over other things has a lot to do with the skew of hyper-consumerism in the economy.
That said the same time it's an outstanding teaching tool for grasping how much attention and space is devoted to vehicles rather than people. That's the beauty of this Saturn commercial.
It reveals how we approach the way we travel, and where we go to do the things that make up our lives.
It's not always apparent, but when we look at how cities scale their roadways, it tends to be done with respect to making it convenient for a car rather than the people in the city. In my end of Michigan, there's a fair number of people scraping by to get to work via car, even I commute over a hundred miles almost on a weekly basis for school and work. That brings a big question based on a plausible what if: What if we couldn't take this kind of long-distance transit system for granted (say, gas is too costly)? How can we make the immediate locality--the place we live in--more vibrant and economically resilient?
The Saturn Ion commercial captures an intrinsic truth about human travel so well that years later even without the company's existence we can look at it as an opportunity to rethink walkability and livable communities. In case you were wondering, this is one of those rare "blew my mind with a new paradigm" moments.
Watching it again with a new paradigm for walkability in cities, a better understanding of infrastructure and sustainability, I can't help but think that it's a bit ironic and hope that it's a bit prophetic too. You may ask, "Ironic?" Think about it, this commercial came from a car company--even though I owned a Saturn and loved it--much of our road infrastructure and city planning (especially for those living in Michigan--even more so for those in Southeast Michigan) was designed around car transportation by the push of the Automotive industry.
Feel free to converse with me in person about the gritty details, I think a lot of people in the Automotive sector are trying to do the right thing at this time (though it may be a bit late) and don't want to unfairly characterize the efforts of the people who are doing good by giving the darker aspects of the company's (GM's) history here). That said, James Kettering (of GM and also Kettering University's namesake) had a big role to play in shaping a worldview for consumerism, and I suspect not being able to afford a new car over other things has a lot to do with the skew of hyper-consumerism in the economy.
That said the same time it's an outstanding teaching tool for grasping how much attention and space is devoted to vehicles rather than people. That's the beauty of this Saturn commercial.
It reveals how we approach the way we travel, and where we go to do the things that make up our lives.
It's not always apparent, but when we look at how cities scale their roadways, it tends to be done with respect to making it convenient for a car rather than the people in the city. In my end of Michigan, there's a fair number of people scraping by to get to work via car, even I commute over a hundred miles almost on a weekly basis for school and work. That brings a big question based on a plausible what if: What if we couldn't take this kind of long-distance transit system for granted (say, gas is too costly)? How can we make the immediate locality--the place we live in--more vibrant and economically resilient?
The Saturn Ion commercial captures an intrinsic truth about human travel so well that years later even without the company's existence we can look at it as an opportunity to rethink walkability and livable communities. In case you were wondering, this is one of those rare "blew my mind with a new paradigm" moments.
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