BYPASS

The photograph above was taken under a highway system in Shanghai, China.

In "Joys of Automobility" Webber concludes,“ our central challenge is to invent was to extend the equivalent of automobile to everyone […]”, thus stating that the biggest problem is finding social equity with mobility. Enthralled with the automobile, technology and their facility to connect-and I will argue to fracture as well- cities have rapidly expanded and furcated giving way to “edge cities” and multi-centric conditions, slowly leading away from the “downtowns” or original center. As distances amplified (and continue to do so), “paths” disappeared in favor of the road, the boulevard, and the highway… A pronounced need for connections (be it physical or virtual) has led to the creation of enclaves of technology and business centers, a dependency on vehicular transportation, and an increase of supporting infrastructure. Nevertheless, questions such as “what to connect?” and “who to include?” are based on very selective/exclusive (perhaps strictly capitalist) processes that “bypass” areas in privilege of others, thus fracturing and creating enclaves (of inclusion and exclusion) in the city. With that said, having access in the city is important but I would argue that social equity is not about mobility (which merely scratches on the surface of the problem), it is about integration.