New Film ‘Life On Wheels” Provides Timely And Telling Look At The Mobility Revolution Afoot

A timely new film entitled “Life On Wheels” is available online and provides a fast-paced, easy-to-view, and thought-provoking analysis of the mobility revolution that is underway and for which we all need to be giving considerable focus.

Here’s the link to the website for the film project (use this link here).

To watch the film, use the webpage at this link here, and you’ll see a link to Amazon where the video is available for viewing (the video is available for free viewing by Amazon Prime members).

Put together by the director/producer seasoned duo of David Hodge and Hi-Jin Kang Hodge, they know how to tell a story that offers a human quality to what otherwise can sometimes be a dry rendition about the ailments of our existing transportation systems. Using quick video cuts, coupled with shrewdly chosen experts that offer memorable quips and insights about the mobility chores of today and the possible options of greater innovative mobility in the future, this content-packed video clocks in at just a tad less than an hour in length.

By keeping the film to under an hour in viewing time, most that might be interested in a bite-sized learning experience about how our cities and roadway infrastructure crimp us and how we might manage to extricate ourselves from the sordid mess will be suitably placated and satiated.

Though, do realize that the thorny questions raised will have a (hopefully) long-lasting effect on viewers, potentially spurring them to find out how they can partake in their local mobility efforts. It takes a village to establish and maintain a sensible network of mobility options and you might find yourself sparked into action.

Timeliness In Many Ways

In some ways, the film’s release is ironically fortuitously aligned with the shelter-in-place efforts taking place around the globe.

How so?

Well, I have witnessed neighbors of mine that for the first time have suddenly seen what has otherwise been hiding in plain sight, namely the sour and sorrowful state of mobility that they are immersed within.

For example, by walking throughout our neighborhood, they have encountered crosswalks that are poorly marked and quite dangerous for those that are not especially attentive. They have discovered that many of our nearby parks are using as much space for the parking of cars as is the space available for wandering amongst greenery (currently, the parking lots are empty, due to the requirement that cars be used only for essential purposes like getting food or going to the doctor, and therefore the conspicuousness of the vast asphalt lots are momentarily visible and no longer surreptitiously hidden by flanks of automobiles).

By and large, the current situation has forced many of us into becoming an everyday type of pedestrian.

Gasp, being a pedestrian, ugh, rather than a driver.

We seem to hold driving in much higher regard socially.

But then came the shelter-in-place or staying-at-home proclamations. As such, we have each now had an unexpected disruption in our usual existence and have by decree gotten outside of the sheltered cocoon of our spiffy cars, awakened anew to the realities of what it is like to try and walk in our suburban streets and meander within our city blocks.

As rightfully pointed out in the film, humans seem to have an innate craving for speed, which has motivated us to keenly crave and buy cars, enabling us to drive hurriedly to wherever we might wish to go, despite the fact that walking might be a viable alternative, offering a healthier approach and one that allows our minds to gain contemplative time for indispensable reflective thought.

The high volume of car traffic and agonizingly frustrating roadway congestion that we normally endure is inarguably bad for our physical state, reducing the amount of exercise that we get, and likely untoward for our mental state as we remain glued to the steering wheel and do whatever we can to keep from getting into a car crash.

Speaking of car crashes, the opening scene (trigger alert) showcases the aftermath of what can happen after an automotive incident, sparing us the graphic details, but using the voices of those that are touched by such calamities to express what we typically keep deeply submerged in the backs of our minds.

In short, each time that you get on the road in a car, it is a gigantic contest of death-defying roulette and you never know when that ominous life-or-death gambling wheel is going to sadly halt on your number (this is a number you decidedly don’t want to land on).

Of course, our life on wheels does not only have to consist of cars.

The film showcases the rise of scooters and the seeming rebirth of using our bicycles, all of which won’t continue unless we ensure that the roadway and the design of our cities are compatible with such ventures.

Cars in our society get a first-class treatment, while everything else seems to get a second-class castoff.

Should we turn that around?

Can we turn it around?

Furthermore, with the emergence of true self-driving or autonomous cars and other such AI-driven vehicles, perhaps we ought to rethink the fundamental design of our cities and our road spaces for a newer age.

Conclusion

In one of my prior articles, I described a famous allegory known as the Upstream Parable (see the link here) and indicated how it merits attention in the coming struggle over what mobility is going to be for our future and the future of our children.

The upshot is that we oftentimes are so focused on the downstream activities that we are unable or unaware of looking upstream where the root of the problems might exist.

Via “Life On Wheels” you might be startled into aiming your eyes toward the foundational aspects of whether we need to reshape and revamp the structure of our metropolises. Rather than trying to relentlessly and in a perhaps futile manner keep patching what has already been established, it might be time to give walking a new chance at life, and breath fresh air into the intrinsic fact that we are inescapably fashioned by nature as walking animals.

Maybe, just maybe, we can shift our gaze from being auto-centric and instead take stock of being human-centric, creating places where we live, work, play, and share in a more mobility-sensible way, streamlined and committed to being humans and living amongst our fellow humanity.

A heartfelt thanks goes to the team that has put together such a perceptive video that vividly depicts how our lives are inextricably intertwined with the miracle of wheels, and asks us pointedly, unabashedly, to seriously rethink the futurescape of transportation and undeniably our very existence.

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