In terms of local transport, these days people are veritable speed demons, always looking for the quickest route possible. Since walking is out of the question, people are turning to automobiles to get around. Rush to the bus or hail the nearest taxi, call your friend to drive you or use your own vehicle. This makes today's world a major contradiction in some ways. Where people now seem to demand the fastest and now they also demand eco-friendly and healthy products. Instead of stepping back and going back to the drawing board, the quickest solution was to make "friendlier" cars and consider them the world's greatest invention. At a Detroit auto show, General Motors' Rick Wagoner said, "We want to produce vehicles in which you can be proud of your contribution to the environment, but without really having to compromise." » This simply seems to beat the same dead horse with a different, perhaps lighter, stick to make us feel better about our consumption. This seems more like a delay than a solution. The world is not in the most perfect place, but there is such a quest for modernization. with the aim of “improving life”, when in reality we are biting ourselves in the ass. There are many alternatives one can adopt to remedy the clustered streets that plague most cities, but it is the mode of transportation that seems to be the most overlooked. or considered a nuisance is the modern rickshaw, otherwise known as the tricshaw. Rickshaws started out as a wonderful new technology. Wheeler's article discussing the history of the rickshaw indicates that it replaced greater periods of walking or the need to try to buy. an animal and ...... middle of paper ......e and a balance to work with so as not to kill or injure anyone by a simple mistake, but it has functioned as such an important source of transportation since generations. Its decreasing nature in the East could be a precursor for the West and give the idea that there is no longer any real need for them even though it is a way of life, a work and an art form for those who care. In a world that strives to be conscious of so many things, people tend to limit their choices as much as possible. Works Cited Wheeler, Tony and Richard I'Anson. Chasing Rickshaws.Melbourne: Lonely Planet Publications, 1998. Print.Strand, David. Rickshaw Beijing: Townspeople and Politics in the 1920s. Berkeley: University of California, 1989. Print. Newman, Richard J. "Keep on Guzzlin'" US News & World Report February 17, 2003. General Onefile.Web. March 25. 2010.