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Urban land use is often dominated by automobiles. Pictured: São Paulo, Brazil.

World map of automobiles per capita.

Over the course of the 20th century, the automobile rapidly developed from an expensive toy for the rich into the de facto standard for passenger transport in most developed countries.^[1] In developing countries, the effects of the automobile have lagged, but are emulating the impacts of developed nations. The development of the automobile built upon the transport revolution started by railways, and like the railways, introduced sweeping changes in employment patterns, social interactions, infrastructure and goods distribution.

The effects of the automobile on everyday life have been a subject of controversy. While the introduction of the mass-produced automobile represented a revolution in mobility and convenience, the modern consequences of heavy automotive use contribute to the use of non-renewable fuels, a dramatic increase in the rate of accidental death, social isolation, the disconnection of community, the rise in obesity, the generation of air & noise pollution, urban sprawl, and urban decay.^[2]

Access and convenience[link]

A drive-through lane at a United States post office

Worldwide the automobile has allowed easier access to remote places. However, average journey times to regularly visited places have increased in large cities, especially in Latin America, as a result of widespread automobile adoption. This is due to traffic congestion and the increased distances between home and work brought about by urban sprawl.^[3]

Examples of automobile access issues in underdeveloped countries are:

• Paving of Mexican Federal Highway 1 through Baja California, completing the connection of Cabo San Lucas to California, and convenient access to the outside world for villagers along the route. (occurred in the 1950s)
• In Madagascar, approximately 30 percent of the population does not have access to reliable all weather roads.^[4]
• In China, there are currently 184 towns and 54,000 villages that have no access to automobile use (or roads at all)^[5]
• The origin of HIV explosion in the human population has been hypothesized by CDC researchers to derive in part from more intensive social interactions afforded by new road networks in Central Africa allowing more frequent travel from villagers to cities and higher density development of many African cities in the period 1950 to 1980.^[6]

The following developments in retail are partially due to automobile use:

• Drive-thru fast food purchasing
• Gasoline station grocery shopping

Economic changes[link]

The main reason for the height of these signs is to attract the attention of drivers on the adjacent freeway.

The development of the automobile has contributed to changes in employment distribution, shopping patterns, social interactions, manufacturing priorities and city planning; increasing use of automobiles has reduced the roles of walking, horses and railroads.^[7]

United States[link]

Sidewalkless

In addition to federal, state, and local dollars for roadway construction, car use was also encouraged through new zoning laws that required that any new business construct a certain amount of parking based on the size and type of facility. The effect of this was to create a massive quantity of free parking spaces and to push businesses further back from the road. Many shopping centers and suburbs abandoned sidewalks altogether,^[8] making pedestrian access dangerous. This had the effect of encouraging people to drive, even for short trips that might have been walkable, thus increasing and solidifying American auto-dependency.^[9] As a result of this change, employment opportunities for people who were not wealthy enough to own a car and for people who could not drive, due to age or physical disabilities, became severely limited.^[10]

Cultural changes[link]

Prior to the appearance of the automobile, horses, walking and streetcars were the major modes of transportation within cities.^[7] Horses require a large amount of care, and were therefore kept in public facilities that were usually far from residences. The wealthy could afford to keep horses for private use, hence the term carriage trade referred to elite patronage.^[11] Horse manure left on the streets also created a sanitation problem.^[12]

The automobile made regular medium-distance travel more convenient and affordable, especially in areas without railways. Because automobiles did not require rest, and were faster than horse-drawn conveyances, people were routinely able to travel farther than in earlier times. The construction of highways half a century later continued this revolution in mobility. Some experts suggest that many of these changes began during the Golden age of the bicycle, the preceding era from 1880—1915.^[13]

Changes to urban society[link]

Modern automobiles on an American highway, the Downtown Connector in Atlanta, Georgia.

Beginning in the 1940s, most urban environments in the United States lost their streetcars, cable cars, and other forms of light rail, to be replaced by diesel-burning motor coaches or buses. Many of these have never returned, though some urban communities eventually installed subways.

Another change brought about by the automobile is that modern urban pedestrians must be more alert than their ancestors. In the past, a pedestrian had to worry about relatively slow-moving streetcars or other obstacles of travel. With the proliferation of the automobile, a pedestrian has to anticipate safety risks of automobiles at high speeds because cars may cause serious damage to a human.^[7]

According to many social scientists, the loss of pedestrian-scale villages has also disconnected communities. Many people in developed countries have less contact with their neighbors and rarely walk unless they place a high value on exercise.^[14]

People visiting a suburban warehouse-club store via cars.

Advent of suburban society[link]

Because of the automobile, the outward growth of cities accelerated, and the development of suburbs in automobile intensive cultures was intensified.^[7] Until the advent of the automobile, factory workers lived either close to the factory or in high density communities farther away, connected to the factory by streetcar or rail. The automobile and the federal subsidies for roads and suburban development that supported car culture allowed people to live in low density communities far from the city center and integrated city neighborhoods.^[7] The developing suburbs created few local jobs, due to single use zoning. Hence, residents commuted longer distances to work each day as the suburbs expanded.^[2]

Car culture[link]

The car had a significant effect on the culture of the middle class. As other vehicles had been, automobiles were incorporated into artworks including music, books and movies. Between 1905 and 1908, more than 120 songs were written in which the automobile was the subject.^[7] Novels celebrating the political effects of motorization included Free Air by Sinclair Lewis. Where earlier mass media had made heroes of Casey Jones, Allan Pinkerton and other stalwart protectors of public transport, new road movies offered heroes who found freedom and equality, rather than duty and hierarchy, on the open road.

George Monbiot writes that widespread car culture has shifted voter's preference to the right of the political spectrum.^[15] He thinks that car culture has contributed to an increase in individualism and fewer social interactions between members of different socioeconomic classes.

Since the early days of the automobile, the American Motor League promoted the making of more and better cars, and the American Automobile Association joined the good roads movement begun during the earlier bicycle craze. Fans of particular types and models formed car clubs to celebrate and promote them. When manufacturers and petroleum fuel suppliers were well established, they also joined construction contractors in lobbying governments to build public roads.^[2]

Road building was sometimes also influenced by Keynesian-style political ideologies. In Europe, massive freeway building programs were initiated by a number of social democratic governments after World War II, in an attempt to create jobs and make the automobile available to the working classes. From the 1970s, promotion of the automobile increasingly became a trait of some conservatives. Margaret Thatcher talked of a "great car economy", and increased government spending on roads.

Safety[link]

Motor vehicle accidents account for 37.5% of accidental deaths in the United States, making them the country's leading cause of accidental death.^[16] Though travelers in cars suffer fewer deaths per journey, or per unit time or distance, than most other users of private transport such as bicyclers or pedestrians, cars are also more used, making automobile safety an important topic of study.

Costs[link]

In countries such as the United States the infrastructure that makes car use possible, such as highways, roads and parking lots is funded by the government and supported through zoning and construction requirements.^[17] Fuel taxes in the United States cover about 60% of highway construction and repair costs, but little of the cost to construct or repair local roads.^[18][19] Payments by motor-vehicle users fall short of government expenditures tied to motor-vehicle use by 20–70 cents per gallon of gas.^[20] Zoning laws in many areas require that large, free parking lots accompany any new buildings. Municipal parking lots are often free or do not charge a market rate. Hence, the cost of driving a car in the US is subsidized, supported by businesses and the government who cover the cost of roads and parking.^[17]

This government support of the automobile through subsidies for infrastructure, the cost of highway police enforcement, recovering stolen cars, and many other factors makes public transport a less economically competitive choice for commuters when considering direct out-of-pocket costs. Consumers often make choices based on the direct out-of-pocket costs and underestimate the indirect costs of car ownership, auto insurance and car maintenance.^[18] However, globally and in some US cities, tolls and parking fees partially offset these heavy subsidies for driving. Transportation planning policy advocates often support tolls, increased fuel taxes, congestion pricing and market-rate pricing for municipal parking as a means of balancing car use in urban centers with more efficient, less environmentally and socially destructive modes of transportation such as buses and trains.

When cities charge market rates for on-street parking and municipal parking garages, and when bridges and tunnels are tolled, driving becomes less competitive in terms of out-of-pocket costs. When municipal parking is underpriced and roads are not tolled, most of the cost of vehicle usage is paid for by general government revenue, a subsidy for motor vehicle use. The size of this subsidy dwarfs the federal, state, and local subsidies for the maintenance of infrastructure and discounted fares for public transportation.^[18]

By contrast, although there are environmental and social costs for rail, there is a very small impact.^[18]

See also[link]

• Environmental impact of transport

Alternatives[link]

• Car-free movement
• Congestion pricing
• Freeway and expressway revolts
• Good Roads Movement
• Green vehicle
• Road protest in the United Kingdom
• Road space rationing
• New Pedestrianism

Effects[link]

• Externality
• Roadway noise
• Roadway air dispersion modeling

Planning Response[link]

• Compact City
• New Urbanism
• Transit Oriented Development
• Smart Growth

References[link]

External links[link]

• Forum for the Automobile and Society
• website for the book Carjacked: The Culture of the Automobile and its Effect on Our Lives

Venetian Snares
Background information
Birth name	Aaron Funk
Born	(1975-01-11) January 11, 1975 (age 37)
Origin	Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Genres	Breakcore Glitchcore IDM Orchestral music Noise Drum & Bass
Instruments	Guitar, drums, percussion, kazoo, bass guitar, harpsichord, piano, violin, viola, cello, drum machine, synthesizer, sampler, softsynth
Years active	1992–present
Labels	Hymen Records Planet Mu Sublight Records
Associated acts	Last Step, Speed Dealer Moms, Stunt Rock, Bong-Ra, Speedranch, Cex, Doormouse, Fanny, John Frusciante
Website	venetiansnares.com

Venetian Snares is the main performing alias of Canadian electronic musician Aaron Funk (born January 11, 1975).

From Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, Funk is known for making electronic music often in odd numbered time signatures (mostly 7/4). Up until 2007, he was very prolific, releasing as many as eight recordings a year for such record labels as History of the Future, Isolate/DySLeXiC ResPonSe, Addict, Zod, Distort, Sublight, Low-Res, Planet Mu and Hymen.

Funk debuted on a record label in 1999 with the 12" vinyl EP, Greg Hates Car Culture. Prior to this, he self-released material on cassette tape as early as 1992.^[1]

Biography[link]

Funk's first release was the EP Greg Hates Car Culture released on History of the Future, followed by Salt on Zhark International and Fuck Canada/Fuck America with Stunt Rock for CLFST. When Mike Paradinas heard Greg Hates Car Culture he immediately signed Funk for Planet Mu. The first Venetian Snares LP on Planet Mu, Making Orange Things (a co-production with Speedranch), was released in early 2001, followed in short order by five more releases, all before the end of 2002. Funk continued producing for a variety of labels, including Hymen Records, Peace Off Records, Addict Records, and Sublight Records. He has also produced albums under the names Last Step and Vsnares, produced singles under the names Last Step, Snares Man! and Snares, appeared on compilations under the names Ventriloquist Snakes, Last Step, Puff, and Senetian Vnares, and did a split with Fanny under the name BeeSnares.^[2]

His style has been critically acclaimed, notably by the late British radio disc jockey John Peel.^[3] Venetian Snares is said to have reinvented breakcore^[4] and set the stage for many other artists such as UndaCova, Xanopticon, Enduser and Datach'i.

Venetian Snares composes much of his music with trackers. Before he began to release his music commercially, he worked primarily with OctaMED on an Amiga 500.^[1] At some point prior to 2000 he began using a PC and the Windows port of OctaMED, MED Soundstudio.^[5] During 2003 and 2005 he also used Cubase in addition to MED. Venetian Snares currently uses Renoise and has uploaded a video of his track "Vache" (from Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms) playing in Renoise on YouTube.^[6]

In a February 2003 interview, Funk was asked a question regarding the diverse mix of genres he draws upon in his music, a property which the interviewer labelled "eclecticism". Funk replied: "I prefer to call it Surrealism."^[7]

In other interviews he discusses how his early experiments in sound influenced his aethetics and use of samples: "When I was a kid I'd use a bunch of ghetto blasters playing all at once to play different sounds I'd recorded with some other shitty ghetto blasters. A turning point was when I somehow came across this looping delay pedal that held a 2 second sample. This pedal coupled with the ghetto blaster experiments really changed my life."^[8] In another interview regarding his early musical upbringing he claimed "I did start with traditional instruments, piano when I was very young. Grew up at my grandparent’s home and they had an upright piano I plunked away on since before I can remember. Of course a sampler is a musical instrument as well as a production tool. It allows you control over any sound. You can make music out of a toilet and a Zamfir record with a sampler!" ^[9]

Discography[link]

As Venetian Snares[link]

Albums[link]

• Eat Shit And Die (1998, split with DJ Fishead, self-release)
• Spells (1998, self-release)
• Subvert! (1998, self-release)
• Fuck Canada // Fuck America (1999, CLFST, split with Stunt Rock)
• printf("shiver in eternal darkness/n"); (2000, Isolate Records)
• Making Orange Things (2001, Planet Mu, collaboration with Speedranch)
• Songs About My Cats (2001, Planet Mu)
• Doll Doll Doll (2001, Hymen Records)
• Higgins Ultra Low Track Glue Funk Hits 1972–2006 (2002, Planet Mu)
• Winter in the Belly of a Snake (2002, Planet Mu)
• Find Candace (2003, Hymen Records)
• The Chocolate Wheelchair Album (2003, Planet Mu)
• Huge Chrome Cylinder Box Unfolding (2004, Planet Mu)
• Winnipeg Is a Frozen Shithole (2005, Sublight Records)
• Rossz csillag alatt született (2005, Planet Mu)
• Meathole (2005, Planet Mu)
• Cavalcade of Glee and Dadaist Happy Hardcore Pom Poms (2006, Planet Mu)
• Hospitality (2006, Planet Mu)
• My Downfall (Original Soundtrack) (2007, Planet Mu)
• Detrimentalist (2008, Planet Mu) ^[10]
• Filth (2009, Planet Mu)
• My So-Called Life (2010, Timesig) ^[11]

12″s, 7″s, EPs, and mini-releases[link]

• Fake:Impossible (1997, self-release)
• Greg Hates Car Culture (1999, History of the Future)
• Salt (2000, Zhark International)
• 7 Sevens.med EP (2000, Low Res)
• White Label (2001, Hangars Liquides)
• Defluxion / Boarded Up Swan Entrance (2001, Planet Mu)
• Shitfuckers!!! (2001, Dyslexic Response)
• The Connected Series #2 (collaboration with Cex) (2001, Klangkrieg)
• A Giant Alien Force More Violent & Sick Than Anything You Can Imagine (2002, Hymen Records)
• Badminton (2003, Addict Records)
• Einstein-Rosen Bridge (2003, Planet Mu)
• Nymphomatriarch (2003, Hymen Records, collaboration with Hecate)
• Podsjfkj Pojid Poa (2003, Double H Noise Industries, split with Phantomsmasher)
• Skelechairs (2004, Addict Records, collaboration with Doormouse)
• Moonglow / This Bitter Earth (2004, Addict Records)
• Horse and Goat (2004, Sublight Records)
• Infolepsy EP (2004, Coredump Records)
• Pink + Green (2007, Sublight Records)
• Miss Balaton (2008, Planet Mu)
• Horsey Noises (2009, Planet Mu)
• Cubist Reggae (2011, Planet Mu)
• Affectionate (2012, self-release)
• Fool the Detector (2012, Timesig)

As Snares Man![link]

• Clearance Bin/Breakbeat Malaria (2001, History of the Future)

As Vsnares[link]

• 2370894 (2002, Planet Mu)

As BeeSnares[link]

• Leopards Of Mass Destruction (2003, Death$ucker Records, split with Fanny)

As Last Step[link]

Albums[link]

• Last Step (2007, Planet Mu)
• 1961 (2008, Planet Mu)
• Sleep (2012, Planet Mu)

12″s, 7″s, EPs, and mini-releases[link]

• You're A Nice Girl (2005, Planet Mu)
• Bhavani (2006, Project 168)

As Snares[link]

• Sabbath Dubs (2007, Kriss Records)

As Speed Dealer Moms[link]

• Speed Dealer Moms EP (2010, Timesig, collaboration with John Frusciante and Chris McDonald)^[12]

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Venetian Snares / Aaron Funk at Discogs
• Venetian Snares at Last.fm
• Last Step's page on Discogs