Sir, – Gregory Rosenstock (March 4th) has offered an entertaining, if slightly overwrought, description of the social and environmental costs of widespread car ownership. It is, however, worth mentioning the overwhelming benefits derived from the proliferation of the motor car.
The society described by Mr Rosenstock is fundamentally not one which is obsessed by cars, but one obsessed with mobility. When compared to the static, highly localised nature of life prior to the emergence of the car as a tool of personal mobility, we can appreciate the true value of our car-derived freedom which he dismisses as illusory.
Indeed, the very fact that people do expend such colossal effort in terms of money and resources to build, buy and run cars is proof of the value which cars offer to modern society.
The fact that Mr Rosenstock might disapprove of such priorities is rather beside the point. – Yours, etc,
JACK COSTELLO,
Armstrong’s Barn,
Annamoe,
Co Wicklow.