road cutting through a forest
somewhat-recently was in a less-build area with some shreds of the forest that Was. there were thick moss and lichen and European blueberry mats. Pseudevernia furfuracea indicated clean air (!!!). I saw a steep-sided hill and wanted to scale it, and headed that way.
then, road.
(picture quickly taken between passing semi-trailers)
about the road:
- no crossings I could find. path bisected by it. expected to just run right across it, I suppose
- far too busy to run across
- I did get here using this road, which is atypical for me, since I don't drive. there is a train to this location, but it is prohibitively expensive. Therein lies a good deal of the problem
- I appreciate this road for providing access for the purposes of ambulances, etc, which aren't really railway things.
- the road only blocked me from satisfying my curiosity, instead of blocking me from food, water, shelter, etc.
- if I was an animal which didn't know what cars are, I'd be dead
...
roads are welcome pieces of infrastructure for many reasons you might imagine. Emergency services, access to places not-along rail lines, access for people who'd struggle with train travel (e.g. lots of cargo). but this road is very busy, carrying goods on a route parallel to a quiet cargo-free rail line. The roar-hiss of wheels on its uneven skin is constant. I am surrounded by people who would take the train if it the tickets out here weren't almost two-days-full-time at min wage.
roads get laid down quickly, while only decades later is there a consideration of how we might cross it. Technological, infrastructural "Progress" that fundamentally ignores the communities it traipses over.
if this village was valued beyond a lodge-getaway for tourists driving in, and beyond being a stop along the way to somewhere else, how might this road be different?
maybe one day the road will have a bridge like the railway does — and both will have wildlife crossings — so the capillaries of progress won't sever the village from its neighbors.
"better connectivity" from which perspective?
...
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