Welcome to the Metastructure: The New Internet of Transportation

Though I haven't lived there for nearly three decades, I still consider myself a citizen of Los Angeles. That means, among other things, I drive. For me, a car is like a suit or a good exoskeleton. Road trips, going 100 miles per hour on a freeway, racing through Park La Brea--they're all sewn as tightly into my DNA as ice-skating in Central Park is for a New Yorker. Despite that heritage, I've been running an experiment on myself and my hometown. My last three trips there, I didn't rent a car; it's been nothing but taxis, Uber, and one time I borrowed my dad's. Not only did I move through space and time every bit as efficiently--more, if you believe that screwing around on Twitter and email is useful--I took new routes.