The Absurd Primacy of the Automobile in American Life

[KamaAina]

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/04/absurd-primacy-of-the-car-in-american-life/476346/

The car is the star. That’s been true for well over a century—unrivaled staying power for an industrial-age, pistons-and-brute-force machine in an era so dominated by silicon and software. Cars conquered the daily culture of American life back when top hats and child labor were in vogue, and well ahead of such other innovations as radio, plastic, refrigerators, the electrical grid, and women’s suffrage.

A big part of why they’ve stuck around is that they are the epitome of convenience. That’s the allure and the promise that’s kept drivers hooked, dating all the way back to the versatile, do-everything Ford Model T. Convenience (some might call it freedom) is not a selling point to be easily dismissed—this trusty conveyance, always there, always ready, on no schedule but its owner’s. Buses can’t do that. Trains can’t do that. Even Uber makes riders wait.

But convenience, along with American history, culture, rituals, and man-machine affection, hide the true cost and nature of cars. And what is that nature? Simply this: In almost every way imaginable, the car, as it is deployed and used today, is insane.

What are the failings of cars? First and foremost, they are profligate wasters of money and fuel: More than 80 cents of every dollar spent on gasoline is squandered by the inherent inefficiencies of the modern internal combustion engine. No part of daily life wastes more energy and, by extension, more money than the modern automobile. While burning through all that fuel, cars and trucks spew toxins and particulate waste into the atmosphere that induce cancer, lung disease, and asthma. These emissions measurably decrease longevity—not by a matter of days, but years. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology calculates that 53,000 Americans die prematurely every year from vehicle pollution, losing 10 years of life on average compared to their lifespans in the absence of tailpipe emissions.

[whatthehey]

1. I, mostly, drive EV

But without that I could neither earn money which generates tens of thousands in income taxes or spend money which generates thousands in sales taxes, as I could not walk to the end of my street let alone to work and retail places.

[CentralCoaster]

2. It won't happen overnight, but Transit Oriented Development offers hope for the future.

You and others have to drive because we chose the wrong path, with cheap energy, and gave up sensible planning in favor of the auto culture and suburban planning.

We won't change that overnight, but younger people will be choosing a different lifestyle, property values are climbing near transit stops and businesses will want to locate near transit.

Over time, suburban homes will fall in value relative to those nearer to shopping, businesses, and transit.

Driving is unsustainable as a planning model and it will end.

[whatthehey]

3. You missed the part where I can't walk to the end of the street?

I have a 200yd max range and can't handle stairs due to hemiplegia from a spinal cord injury. With a car I can contribute economically, without one I could not. Buses with huge entry steps and tiny narrow aisles you have to turn sideways to walk down? Can't do either of those things. Subways with crowded steps? Can't do that. And that's not counting how far from my destination they drop me off. I work in manufacturing, which tends to have massive buildings set back a long way from the road (and incidentally not often in your dream cities where land prices have pushed large operations into the exurbs). If a bus with some kind of access device picked me up right outside my house and dropped me off at my employer's driveway I could still not get to work. But I can sit in a seat and walk a few yards from the handicapped spots.

[CentralCoaster]

4. A common problem in the discussion about transit:

Nobody is suggesting everyone give up driving.
We realize that no single solution serves all.
But while you are able to use a car, others are not.
Why can't we have both?

[whatthehey]

5. But these evangelical kill car pipedreams never suggest we have both

They always envision tightly clustered inner city dwelling with mass transit that cripples, of my kind at least, cannot use, and assume everybody can leap on and off buses and up and down stairs like gazelles and stroll hundreds of yards to the nearest transit stop in a twinkle. These silly articles celebrate and demand huge pedestrianized areas that mean all amenities in them are shut off to those who cannot walk or stand or even maneuver in crowds. Oh I'm sure they'll kindly put in ramps, but not all disabled folks are in wheelchairs and there has to be a way to get the wheelchair to the ramp even for those who are. Such holier than thou urbanite musings never leave room for those who need cars and do not work downtown (who puts a million square ft factory in the urban core?), or want to live in crowded exorbitantly priced glorified hotel rooms in "luxury apartmentettes". When they invent powered chairs with 50 mile ranges that can get into buses/trains and up and down stairs then this kind of fantasy may be inclusive for those who aren't fit young hipsters, but not until.

[KamaAina]

7. San Jose light rail trains have level boarding

A gentle ramp leads up to the platform for everyone. The train doors open right at platform level.

[whatthehey]

8. How do you get to these trains from your house and from them to your destination?

[KamaAina]

9. On the sidewalks, of course

if there are any, that is, which is a particular issue in the industrial/tech north end of town.

[whatthehey]

10. Which still leaves me with insufficient range to go anywhere past the next block from any station

Assuming, which I've rarely seen, all the trains are at street level without stairs. Whereas a car with close by disabled spaces grants me the freedom to fully engage in society and contribute about the same in federal income taxes as I would take from taxpayers if I were forced onto disability assistance by this ableist pedestrian-only pipedream.

[CentralCoaster]

6. Great article...

Thanks!