Freedom from Cars

Several years ago I began tracking my automobile use by recording and graphing daily kilometers driven. I did this in connection with a course I teach in Self-Experimentation. Students in the course are required to do a behavior-management project, so I routinely do so as well and we share our data in an online discussion group. As a part of my project, I rode a bicycle almost every morning during the winter of 2005-2006 to a local gym, a distance of about four kilometers or 2.5 miles. I live in Edmonton, Alberta, one of the northernmost cities in North America, so this involved bicycling on many cold days and through lots of snow, but it turned out to be something that is feasible, except under extreme temperatures or mornings of deep newly fallen snow. This project also caused me to consider motor vehicle use and I began collecting information from web sites related to freedom from cars. Benefits of car freedom include:

The World Health Organization (WHO) web site indicates that 1.2 million people are killed each year and between 20 and 50 million people are injured and disabled in motor vehicle collisions. It is customary to refer to such collisions as "accidents", but accidents are defined by an unforeseen or unexpected misfortune and it is difficult to maintain that motor vehicle collisions are unforeseen or unexpected given the statistics showing that fatal collisions are relatively common. (The WHO statistics are available here.) Estimates of motor vehicle fatalities and injuries vary considerably, but in the statistics below I've used the WHO statistics for purposes of illustration.

To put the destructive capacity of motor vehicles into perspective, the 1.2 million motor vehicle fatalities per year is equivalent to the following in loss of life:

  • Dropping eight and a half Hiroshima Bombs per year (140,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Hiroshima bomb).

  • Dropping 17 Nagasaki Bombs per year (70,000 people are estimated to have been killed by the Nagasaki bomb).

  • Enduring 400 terrorist attacks of the scale of the 2001 World Trade Center attack in which 3,000 people perished.

  • Fighting about two U.S. Civil Wars (618,000 people are estimated to have been killed in the Civil War).

  • Experiencing 844 Hurricane Katrinas (1,422 deaths).

  • Suffering from 5.2 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami disasters, where 230,000 died.

There are several psychological aspects to car freedom and car domination. Over time, cultures develop blind spots to various harmful practices, and the undesirable effects of such practices are only seen in hindsight. Today we fully acknowledge that such practices as slavery, the inequality of women, and discrimination against racial groups to such an extent that we have difficulty comprehending how these practices were ever condoned. But the analogous harmful practices of are own age exist alongside us, invisible and unrecognized as those of former times.

Le Bon's insights into the unconscious unanimity of group behavior are helpful in understanding harmful practices that are implicitly and unquestioningly accepted. Motor vehicle use is such a practice.

Links

A Family of Four - But no Car
Article describes the lifestyle of the Peterson family, who have opted for a car-free life.
Asphalt Nation
Jane Holtz Kay's book details the harmful effects of cars. Particularly eye-opening is the material on the huge hidden costs of cars in, for example, maintaining a huge roadway infrastructure largely at public expense. Available at Amazon.com
Ban Car Advertising
Author of a letter to the Toronto Star suggests that as dangerous products, car ads should be banned in the same way that tobacco ads have been made illegal. Another author makes a similar point in the San Francisco Chronicle.
Barp.ca
"Providing a Photo Documentary of Transit Systems, Highway Coaches, and Rail systems of North America". Includes an interesting page describing Edmonton's electric-powered trolley buses.
Bus Wallpapers
Three eye-catching models.
Carbusters Magazine
Online Magazine advocates a car-free world. Available in several languages.
Car-Free Cities
Book details the virtues of freeing cities from cars and provides considerable attention to the practical details for realizing this vision.
Carfree Day
Sierra Club site provides information and news related to Carfree Day, which is celebrated each year on September 22.
Carfree Home Page
"Why is it not completely hilarious, or utterly horrifying, that most people require a device that weighs 10 to 40 times what they do just so they can get to the grocery store or to their job?" This site is full of interesting material including practical advice about doing without a car. Don't miss the quotes page.
Carfree Times
Newsletter advocates car-free cities. A book, Carfree Cities can also be ordered at this site.
Carfree Family
Blog describes adventures in life without a car.
Divorce Your Car!: Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile
This well-researched book examines the history and development of car culture, the harmful effects of cars, and implementing practical strategies for transporation alternatives.
The Geography of Nowhere
Provocative author incisively describes errors in urban planning that have produced a harmful car-centric culture
Hauling Cargo by Bike
Many of the cargo transportation functions of cars and trucks are replaceable through the use of bicycles, even moving an entire household.
Lee Child and Jack Reacher
Part of the problem with our car culture is a lack of attractive role models who do not drive. Author Lee Child has written a series of page-turners in which the hero is Jack Reacher, a former military policemen who now works more or less as a private detective. Jack has no driver's license and is usually depicted as walking or on the bus.
Making Walking and Cycling Safer: Lessons from Europe
This is an article written by urban planners John Pucher and Lewis Dijkstra. They indicate that pedestrian fatalities are ten times higher per kilometer traveled in the U.S. than they are in the Netherlands and in Germany, whereas bicycle fatalities are four times higher. The authors offer many practical suggestions for planning urban landscapes to reduce these fatality rates based on the relatively successful Dutch and German practices.
Mothers Against Drunk Drivers - Canada
A look at one of MADD's web sites is an emotionally gripping experience. MADD is part of the solution.
Pedestrian and Bicycle Information Center
This organization promotes walking and bicycling as forms of transportation. There is a lot of information here, included an interesting analysis of the American obsession with car culture.
Positive Economic Impacts of Bicycle and Pedestrian Projects
Motor vehicle use is often justified by its economic advantages, but this page turns the conventional arguments around and details the advantages of bicycle and pedestrian projects.
Terror Attacks Influence Driving Behavior in Israel
Some people have come to accept, at least in principle, that drunk driving is undesirable, but this article provides evidence that merely hearing or reading bad news acts to impair the ability of people to drive. The solution is not to ban bad news.
Towards Sustainable Higher Education: Environmental impacts of campus-based and distance higher education systems (pdf file)
This research report from Britain's Open University found that distance learning courses required "nearly 90% less energy and produced 85% fewer CO2 emissions (per student per 10 CAT points) than the conventional campus-based university courses." Reduction in student travel contributed to much of the energy and CO2 declines. An interactive distance learning calculator from the State University of New York allows students to identify savings they can achieve by taking distance education courses.
Transit Benefits
The Center for Transportation Excellence maintains this web page that itemizes the many advantages of public transit, including the fact that bus travel is 170 times safer than auto travel.
Worldcarfree.net
"Worldcarfree.net is a clearinghouse of information from around the world on how to revitalise our towns and cities and create a sustainable future. In addition to serving the carfree movement, Worldcarfree.net offers resources for architects, planners, teachers/professors, students, decision-makers and engaged citizens."