Been driving

I've been driving. Well, about 800km, give or take. In a Mazda Premacy, which is a 2.o litre inflated hatch sort of thing. With wife and 3 kids on board plus luggage we managed to average about 10l/100km at just under 100kmh. Not too bad. The trip was improved by the standard of the roads, which has improved markedly over the last decade or so, although you'd never know it if you read the local newspapers which go on and on about how bad the infrastructure is. Many of them are toll roads but that's OK with me as it was worth paying for. What I do despair about is the amount of land taken up by roads. What were 2 lanes meandering through the countryside have become 4 or even 6 lanes barging through the bush, plus a 'nature strip' in between. I know it has resulted in improved driving safety but it's also resulted in greatly increased driving boredom. And a fear within me that we have ripped up too much of the country, removed too many trees and diverted too much land from the healthy business of maintaining natural balance to the less healthy business of, well, just business. When do we stop and reflect on what is a good balance?