We've known for some time that it would be difficult to rein in the automobile once the country's obsession had taken hold. Footage from a news special aired in 1965 offers historic perspective.
Alex Ihnen dug into the archives to reveal a little gem that illustrates the historic context of the struggle to reckon with the automobile as the central, defining force of cities. Writing from St. Louis, Ihnen has a specific take on the challenges presented by the automobile in that region—where "congestion is among the lowest of any major city."
For comparison's sake, the problem was "more acute," according to Ihnen, in 1965, when the video below was produced. The video, "The Commuters' Special" aired by KMOX-TV, compares the rise of the automobile to the life of Frankenstein's monster: "at first it was docile and easy to get along with but somewhere along the line the monster began getting out of hand and eventually it hunted its creator down and destroyed him."
The article includes more of Ihnen's take on the lessons gained from unearthing the clip as well as a transcript of the video.
Read the full story: Frankenstein and the American Family Automobile
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