Usually, I try to present my own thoughts and words here. But in The Great Good Place, sociologist Ray Oldenburg so beautifully implicates us in our drunken-driving fatalities that I’ll just quote him here:
Many middle-class Americans escape the boredom of their neighborhoods in various kinds of drinking establishments that must be reached by automobile. In perusing a local zoning code, I found that every tavern must have one parking place for each two employees and one parking place for every three customers’ seats. This formula for tragedy produces a high yield…. Why should a nation of drinkers arrange their municipalities such that drinking and driving are frequently and almost necessarily combined? “Gasoline and alcohol don’t mix,” says the American slogan. Of course they do. Our urban planners mix them all the time and in great doses. See the zoning codes for confirmation. (181-182)
Bingo! Ester is blessed with a local pub, two in the summer, where the residents can stroll over and meet their neighbors, have a chat over a not-quite-pint, and, if they stay too late, stagger home again without ever getting behind the wheel of a car. The Golden Eagle is known as “Ester’s living room” for good reason: it’s a social hangout. People come there who are teetotalers, kids come with their parents: the place is a gathering spot, a social center. The regulars are the residents. The parking lot of the Eagle functions as the village square: it creates a community commons.