In a self-described “major policy revision,” the Transportation Department last week announced that it would no longer focus on automobiles in road and highway design, and would begin giving equal consideration to bicycle and pedestrian use.

This is a notable aspect of the New Urbanism movement that has been fully embraced by many politicians, particularly Democrats, and, most importantly, by many key domestic policy advisers in the White House.

The stated goal of the New Urbanists is to make cities cleaner, more efficient, more “livable” and to attract those who have fled to the suburbs and exurbs back into the urban core.  This, we are assured, will have the added benefit of fewer cars, less driving, and better use of resources (including but not limited to energy).

There are, of course, other effects which the New Urbanists do not publicize.  An urbanized population is more likely to vote for Democrats, so there is a profound political rationale for enacting New Urbanist policies that go beyond any actual beneficial impact.   An urbanized population also becomes more like a client base that must be served rather than a citizenry to which one will be held accountable.

For me, the most troubling aspect of New Urbanism is the hatred of the automobile and its virtual war on cars.   Certainly, our automobile culture is open to critique.  But, the goal of replacing our vast fleet of privately owned vehicles with high density urban centers that rely on biking and walking, a public network of trains, and a relatively few vehicles for hire is, to me, one of the most odious ideas ever to come from a social engineering set that has a history of horrible ideas.

There is one simple, inescapable fact of American history:  Mobility is freedom.

From the early Pilgrims crossing the Atlantic on their privately owned or hired sailing ships (or the even earlier settlers making their way across the Bering Land Bridge)  to the 19th century 49ers , 89ers, and all other various and sundry pioneers, to today’s restless and peripatetic generations, America has always been defined by the ability to pack up your belongings and light out for the frontier.

Personal mobility is as much an American birthright as anything codified in the Bill of Rights.  It is a defining characteristic of our culture.

I am not going to go so far as to say that our mobility is under assault, but I do want to sound the alarm on this.  We need to tread very carefully and think long and hard before we embrace policies that will lead to centrally planned, high density urban living.  There are other solutions to the problems of the automobile that are more in character with American culture.