No Cars?
Sauble Beach, Ontario
One of our prized monks in Canada, Karuna Sindhu, spends half his year in India, and half in the land of maple trees. He was kind enough to send me an article which he thought would give with my way of thinking.
Meet the one city in America where cars have been banned since 1898
By: Stephen Messenger thetreehugger.com on July 18, 2013, 3:26 p.m.
Mackinac Island, where cars have been banned since 1898.
When early automobiles first arrived on the scene in the late 19th century,
few people could have imagined that they would one day take over the world. In fact, some towns found the noise and exhaust from these novelty
'horseless carriages' so off-putting that early cars were actually outlawed
in some places.
In time, of course, restrictions were lifted and the car soon became
ubiquitous across the country -- but there is still one place in the United
States that has yet to change its mind. Meet Mackinac Island, where cars
have been banned since 1898.
Located just offshore of mainland Michigan, in Lake Huron, Mackinac
Island and its namesake city have long been a favorite spot for a relaxing
getaway. So, when automobiles first began to arrive, loudly sputtering along
the island's once-quiet roadways, startling horses and spitting out smoke, it quickly became apparent to locals that this new invention was not for them.
One resident at the time was quoted as calling cars "mechanical monsters" --
clearly not a glowing review.
Wikipedia/CC BY 2.0
Naturally, in 1898, the Mackinac village council moved to outlaw the
automobile before the monsters had a chance to take over:
Resolved: That the running of horseless carriages be prohibited within the limits of the village of Mackinac." — Mackinac Island Village Council,
July 6, 1898
Such legislation might seem quaint and old-timey, but in Mackinac, it has
yet to be repealed. So what is life like in a place where one of the most
impactful inventions in history has been outlawed? Well, it's quite nice,
actually.
Although the small island is home to only around 500 people, in the summer, that number swells to 15,000 during tourism season; aside from a couple of emergency vehicles, there's nary a car to be seen. Transportation on Mackinac is limited to walking, horse-drawn carriages, and bicycling -- a pleasant departure from the car-centric society that exists beyond its
borders.
"The air is cleaner and injuries are fewer," writes Jeff Potter, who
published an article about Mackinac. "Island residents are healthier due to
the exercise. There’s a cherished egalitarianism: everyone gets around the same way. They also save a tremendous amount of money that would normally go to commuting by cars."
10 KM
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