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Automobiles Rule World

Cars Rule World- Global ConstantThere is one constant no matter where you are in the world: cars take precedence before people. It is a simple fact of life that these hulking machines of our own creation have full sanction to bully whom ever they please, as they travel in privilege from point A to point [...]

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Cars Rule World- Global Constant

There is one constant no matter where you are in the world: cars take precedence before people. It is a simple fact of life that these hulking machines of our own creation have full sanction to bully whom ever they please, as they travel in privilege from point A to point B.

The automobile rules planet earth.
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Wade from Vagabond Journey.com
in Istanbul, Turkey- March 3, 2009
Travelogue Travel Photos — Travel Guide
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I do not know how many times my jaw has hung agape as I watched a street full of pedestrians smush, cram, and jostle themselves in order to clear a path for one person in an automobile. I have watched hundreds of people act in unison as they alter their paths to give the give the right way to one dude in a car.

A couple of days ago I was walking down a predominately pedestrian street in Istanbul. It was in a market district and was fully packed with people. Shop keepers had their wares in the narrow, stone cobbled street, fat old ladies with heads covered in hijab scarves waddled to and fro with arms full of shopping bags, and a vendor of disposable razors had his wares set up on an upended cardboard box in the middle of everything. Hundreds of people moved in mass unison under a shining sun on a day reserved for shopping. I stood on the side of the melee and took in the scene of Istanbul in motion.

Then some jerk in a car decided to plow through everything. The vendors ran to the street to make sure their displays were not run down, the man selling razor blades quickly packed up his cardboard box shop and ran out of the way, and the waddling old ladies stumbled into mannequins as they sucked in their guts to let the one man band of steel and rubber pass by without delay.

Why would more than a hundred people move out of the way for one fellow to pass like some odd sort of king?

Why does everybody in the world allow this?

How did everybody agree that it is alright for one person in a machine to be able to make hundreds of people stir at his passing?

Yes, it is like this all over the world: the fellow with the car comes first, a street full of pedestrians last. Like some sort of new age megalomaniac kings, people with automobiles can push through a crowd, who will grovel at their heels and get out of the way. It is no wonder to me why it is so desirable to possess an automobile, as, with one at your disposal, you can become a petty sort of tyrant in many parts of the world.

I suppose it all works on the premise that cars can smush people.

Nobody in the world wants to be smushed, so they get out of the way.

Across continents, cultures, and all social divides, the world can agree on one thing:

The man with the automobiles rules.

So get out of the way.

Cars Rule World- Global Constant

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Filed under: Eastern Europe, Europe, Turkey

About the Author:

I am the founder and editor of Vagabond Journey. I’ve been traveling the world since 1999, through 93 countries. I am the author of the book, Ghost Cities of China and have written for The Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg, The Diplomat, the South China Morning Post, and other publications. has written 3729 posts on Vagabond Journey. Contact the author.

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VBJ is currently in: Rome, Italy

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