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The freedom of a car is the ability to go just about anywhere, at any time, for any reason. If I wanted to, I could get in my car right now and be hundreds of miles away in very little time. That is a freedom, one new to the history of the world, and only available to a small fraction of the current world population.
While I hate many things about cars, they do give a power to the average person that even the greatest kings and wealthy men of 200 years ago couldn't even dream about. I think that is something pretty darn special.
Agreed. I've lived more of my life without owning a car than with, and there are times when I can still hardly believe the power and the freedom. No begging my parents to drive me someplace, or hitching a ride when they decide to go to town. No borrowing a car from a roommate or boyfriend. No arranging my schedule around the train or the bus. It makes spontaneous travel possible.
Don't forget that while this may be true in the US, in other places, that actually have public transport, it's a whole different story. Many Europeans travel faster by train than by car. It's not a general truth, that freedom, it's site specific.
Also, what the car gives you in freedom, it takes away from others. Like the freedom to breathe freah air, or to walk through a town or cross a road without having to avoid being killed, on a constant basis.
Cars have robbed children in many urban settings from just about any freedom they ever had. Can't move, can't breathe. Asthma and video games.
Not really. Cities like Boston and New York have excellent public transportation, and finding a place to park is often difficult and expensive. Yet...people still have cars, if they can afford them. It's not easy to do things like grocery shopping or taking the cat to the vet via the T. And if it's raining, you can forget about getting a cab.
Oh, I know that. My point is that there's good reason for people to love cars. They aren't going to give them up without a fight. And people who don't have cars have good reason to want to acquire them.
As a midwesterner, whenever I spend time in Boston or NYC, it always seems so much more beautiful, interesting and cosmopolitan than the drab car-oreinted midwest. I often think I'd be much happier in a more urban environment- came very close to moving to Portland OR. Just can't talk my wife into it. But you're probably right- after a few months the novelty would wear off and I'd miss my car even though I only put about 1000 miles a year on it.
I own a car in an eminently walkable neighborhood. I considered doing without one (feasible but not always convenient) before buying my 1982 Mercedes 240D. Evacuation was the deciding factor in favor of car ownership. I help neighbors without cars out once or twice a month.
The Key is NOT ownership but miles driven
I drive 150 to 180 miles/month and could reduce that to 30 to 75 miles/month. At 31 mpg city, this is sustainable deep into post-Peak Oil. I could drive a Hummer and still be more sustainable than many Prius drivers.
Best Hopes for less driving,
Alan
The single most important determinant of car use is car ownership.
Seven hundred Americans will die in road crashes this week. Over 52,000 will be injured. Many of these will never walk again.
Children in NA spend 95% of their time enclosed. The car is their mobile jail cell.
Quite the social experiment.
It's not easy to do things like grocery shopping or taking the cat to the vet via the T. And if it's raining, you can forget about getting a cab.
In Europe and Asia they have a fairly good answer to that too. It's called "mixed-mode" transportation. For routine trips, that don't require taking luggage (e.g. commuting) people generally take mass transit or simply walking. For all the rest - most people still have cars. They just don't drive then like here to everywhere.
As an european, the lack of any alternative to cars in US is simply killing me... consider for example how much it costs to recover if/when your car breaks down (and you can not afford 2 cars). Towing, rent-a-car, repairs... it can get you in the thousands. In my home city you would still have to repair your car eventually, but nothing will be pressing you and in the meantime you can be perfectly ok with a 5 euro weekly mass transit card (in Western Europe it is more pricy but no more than 20-30 euro AFAIK). An additional effect of this mode is that since the car is not that essential, servicing it is not such a financial burden - as happens to be with maintainance and repairs in the US.
Monthly transit pass prices I know of are San Francisco area: about $125 a month, I think allows bus, and light rail, maybe BART which is passenger train.
Honolulu: $45 a month, ride DaBus all you want.
Consider a place like Venice. They have road and rail connections to the main island, and water transport between the islands, but as far the day to day necessities, you carry the stuff and/or use a small wheeled carrier.
We had dinner one night at a fabulous restaurant, Al Covo (specializing in fresh, local food), which took me a couple of days to track down. The restaurant is owned by a Italian/American couple (he's from Italy; she's from the US). She heard me talking and came over and asked where I was from (Surprise: West Texas). She gave me a big hug and said she was from Lubbock Texas. (It turned out that I probably knew her brother, we probably played high school tennis at the same time.)
In any case, she said that she raised three kids in Venice. When we asked her how she did it, she showed us her biceps--lots of muscles, hauling kids and "stuff" around Venice for 20 years.
After she left to take care of other customers, I told a UK couple we were having dinner with that you cannot imagine two more radically different places than Lubbock, Texas and Venice, Italy.
In about three weeks in Italy, the only cars we were in were taxis on a handful of occasions. Otherwise, it was foot, bus or train. (That is the premise of the Untours program. They set it up so that you live as Europeans live.) But you can see how the Europeans only use about half as much energy per capita as Americans. We also ate like pigs and lost weight. It's amazing what walking miles per day does to your waistline (and what not walking miles per day does to your waistline).
Use your car to make a living for a while. Anything from truck driver to drug mule will depress your need for driving.
I actually drive very little. But it's awfully nice to have the option.
I did give serious consideration to going car-free, but came to the conclusion that it is simply not safe around here. Due to traffic, weather, and, er, socioeconomic factors.
Just that word choice - "car-free" - is significant. Didn't you hear? Having that car is freedom.
Type "carfree" into Google and find the carfree movement, they seem to have evolved on their own with no help from M. King Hubbert, which makes them to me even more admirable - oil regardless, they find the car-centeric culture unhealthy.
The difference between having a car and not for me is, with a car I can do things following a serial topology, while with a bike or scooter I'm stuck with a star topology. This is not to say I might not get rid of the Prius and its insurance and payments, and piece together a solution based on bicycle and scooter, a rented car or truck at times, and building a small "rickshaw" type thing to use walking to the post office with a load of shipping.
It's very hard to say..... the ease of hopping into the car and taking a trip here or there where I find and buy X for resale, pays for the car and then some. And while the Prius is trendy, it's also essentially a small station wagon, can carry mucho stuff and I plan some camping out in it this summer.
Mainly I am planning to get out of needing to own STUFF to make a living. I want to be a bum when I grow up.
Yea, I know you're right. Maybe I'm just still bitter about having grown up a cul-de-sac prisoner. Typical, ugly suburban neighborhood, with absolutely nothing for a kid without access to a car to do.
Absolutely nothing within walking distance- no store, no library, not even a park. My friends and I were so bored we resorted to petty vandalism as entertainment.
A car can whisk someone to a remote place unserved by other transport options, but the vast majority of car trips taken could easily be achieved by other means.
In my neighborhood in Chicago, most folks drive their cars 1 block to go shopping at the local supermarket. Once people have paid the enormous fixed costs of car ownership the incremental costs of using the car to do all these short trips are slight and thus folks use their cars in ways terribly inappropriate.
It is natural and healthy for us to use our own power to move ourselves about. People who never walk farther than the length of a parking lot and who will circle for minutes to find a parking spot closer to the door to avoid a 30 second walk from across the lot have not been empowered. They are enslaved.
dream on!
Pretty darn special, and pretty much ephemeral