With the U.S. automobile industry falling into what appears to be permanent decline, Paul Harris muses on what it means for America's "love affair with the car" when its cars are built somewhere else.
"America's tempestuous affair with the car has become a passionless marriage. Americans still need their cars, but the world has changed and they no longer really love them. Chrysler was taken over by Germany's Daimler. Japanese firms, such as Toyota and Honda, are opening plants as Ford shuts down. Cars are not big business. Ford as a company is worth about $15bn -- Google is worth $129bn."
"Many of the US cars now on the market copy modest European and Japanese designs and shun the brasher concepts. Ford has brought in two Britons to be in charge of the look of its European and US products. Future cars will also be more fuel-efficient and aware of green issues. That is probably good for the environment, but represents a huge shift in what a car actually means to Americans - and what America means to itself."
FULL STORY: How the US fell out of love with its cars
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Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
City of Edmonds
City of Albany
Harvard GSD Executive Education
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
City of Piedmont, CA
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research