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constr.ess[e82,jmc]	The key requirement is to reduce the cost of construction

Rebuilding cities
Separating cars from people
Providing for cars
Automatic delivery system

	There is no one technological development that could improve
the quality of life as much as a large reduction in the cost of
construction.  However, it would have to be accompanied by a willingness
to tear down old construction and rebuild.  New technology would
reduce the cost of construction, but most of what is needed could
be built using present techniques at greater cost.  Bearing  the cost
is merely a matter of spreading the costs over a longer time.

	Consider the following possibilities.  As usual they are not
entirely consistent with one another as corresponds to the idea that
different people will be attracted by different kinds of improvements,
and actual experience will be required to eliminate some of them
as uniformly less attractive than others.

	1. We can rebuild suburban areas so as to completely separate
automobile traffic from pedestrians including especially children.  This
can be done by sinking roads and providing lots of bridges over them and
providing houses with garages at road level.  How much this would cost
is not easy to calculate.  In fact, I once hired someone for three months
to try, but he didn't do it.  Maybe it would double the cost of present
housing, but it might cost still more.

	2. Present cities should all be completely rebuilt.
I believe that we will decide to sacrifice much of the historic
character of cities for improved living.

	3. The parking problem can be solved by building enough underground
parking garages.  The propaganda to the effect that this is an infinite
task is wrong.  It's a large task but affordable by a rich society.
Those who claimed it was an infinite task pointed to the rate at
which the number of cars was increasing in the early 1960s.  Their
critics pointed to the fact that if their extrapolations were taken
seriously, by the 1980s each car would have 0.8 occupants.