What the future holds

This morning I was driving on the LA Roller Coaster (also known as the Pasadena Freeway) and I got to thinking. As the road twisted and turned, I recalled that it holds the title of LA's first freeway, and was met with great eagerness when it opened at the dawn of the age of the automobile. Back then, folks were excited about the growing symbol of American prosperity: a car in every garage. Roads, and eventually freeways, would take over wherever streetcars had once been a major mode of transportation. For many it's hard to believe that the Los Angeles area was once home to one of the world's most comprehensive public transit systems...the famous Red Cars.

Now, of course, there are many who lament what was once hailed with exuberance. Those who sit in traffic on smog-choked freeways, driving to work or school so far from suburbia are realizing that something has gone wrong. This isn't a dream...it's a nightmare. And what we wouldn't give to have the old Red Cars back?

There's a lesson in all of this, of course, and it goes way beyond the lack of sustainability of the culture of the automobile, or nostalgia over a mode of transportation that has vanished. What are we doing, today, to plan for the future? How are these plans, even if well-intended, leading toward results that will be as untenable as we experience the results of yesterday's dreams today?

In some ways it would take a crystal ball to answer that question. But it's not completely outside of our power to think beyond our exuberance to the potential realities of tomorrow. And while we may not, ourselves, be living with the results of our good or ill planning, chances are someone we love will. And who among us wouldn't want them to look back with fondness on a generation that showed true vision for a positive future?