Mooreover / Blog

Everyone is aware that things change. All the same, awareness doesn’t always come until you see the rolling stone.

I was showing a listing of mine today when I saw that rolling stone. I hadn’t met the potential buyers before, so I didn’t know who or how many to expect. They rolled up in a 4-door 1990’s Toyota Camry. All seven of them. Four adults and three children above the age of four.

In our modern age of legislation, safety, and bureaucracy, this is highly unusual. Children are in some form of specialized restraint until their age reaches the double digits, and laps have evolved from seating alternatives to workspaces. I could go on, illustrating that this is mostly a result of socioeconomic factors, but I think for the most part these are understood (dual income families, affluance and the SUV, etc).

I was struck by the polarity of my realization today. What I saw seemed totally inappropriate - yet I remember fondly the days when I remember piling more people into a car than there were seats, or even laying on the recess of the back windshield as a child, counting the stars in the night sky at 55 mph. It didn’t seem like anything I would miss - and believe me, lap-sitting isn’t without it’s awkward moments - but looking back, I can’t help but think that vehicular responsibility didn’t come without a social cost.

Now everyone just drives bigger cars, and more of them. I’m sure that D.O.T. has lots of statistics telling us how much safer we are, but how much safer are we with less of us in any one car, and more, larger cars on the highway?