2005.09.24
The American Love Affair with Cars
For four years I drove an hour each direction to an from my previous place of employment. I was in control of my destiny, so I thought, as long as I was behind the wheel. I was free to do what I wanted when I wanted. Yet the truth is, for me, I wasn’t in control or free. I was trapped and limited.
Americans love their cars. We’re a car culture. A vast highway of roads and highways connects almost every point of this country of ours. We’re an independent people and cars were a form of independence and freedom known previously only to the very wealthy or very ambitious. The mythology grew along with the reality. These days owning a car is symbolic of making it, even among the poor in America. It’s gotten to the point where in some places you have to have a car or you can’t even function.
Now I don’t drive to work. I take public transportation and an interesting change has come over my life. I now feel more free, more independent. True, I’m not in control of the driving anymore, but that frees me to do something I hadn’t done in a long time; read. I’ve read more in the past four months since starting this job than I had the entire four years at my previous job. Taking public transportation is sometime slower than taking a car, but I no longer have to contend with parking. No more parking tickets.
I feel like there is a larger statement to be made about this. Letting someone else be in control might go against the mythological grain of American individuality, but it has given me free time that I hadn’t had in a long time and almost forgot about. When I think back on my life the most freedom I had was in Prague. I could hop on a tram or subway at any time of day or night and get to where I wanted to go. No worries about drunk driving or falling asleep behind the wheel or irritating traffic. It was wonderful.
There is a larger picture to this. Maybe I’ll write more about it when I have it more clearly in mind but I see similar arguments for health care, for example. Ours is a mess. It’s claimed that we have more freedom, but in truth it seems a confusing morass of unknown costs, lack of certain coverage, and red tape. It sounds socialistic, but “universal” health care would give more freedom to many than it would take away.
I want more freedom, not less, and worrying about the condition of my car, insurance, registration, smog tests, the cost of gas, dealing with idiot drivers here in California, and all the rest is worth less to me than giving up a wee bit of control to the bus driver (though I prefer trams!) and having the freedom I then gain.
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3 Responses to “The American Love Affair with Cars”
- Mookee says (September 27th, 2005 at 09:29:36 )
I’d love to take public transport if it would actually take me to work … it might, but it would take something like 3+hours each way. There are limits.
I’d love to be able to read, do basically whatever I felt like, whenever, and not worry about the driving home aspect, I understand completely.
I’m not really sure how it has anything to do with healthcare, but a train that went from my doorstep (or very nearly) to work (or very nearly) … under 2 hours both ways, I’d be tempted.
- Uncle Roger says (September 27th, 2005 at 11:49:03 )
I am SO envious!
For many years, I worked in Walnut Creek, a mere 3.5 blocks from the BART station (4.5 if you count the station itself). It was glorious. 20-30 minutes from my house to BART, then about the same to Walnut Creek. I generally slept on the way out and worked or read on the way home. It was wonderful.Before that, I worked downtown. I would walk to BART from where I was living at the time, then it was 16 minutes on the train — I ended up with a battery life of 16 minutes after a while, but it was worth it.
Eventually, the Walnut Creek job moved several miles from the BART station and, going against the commute, taking the bus for the last bit made it much too long (timewise) a commute — especially with a kid and a very tired wife at home.
So I drove. 45 minutes to an hour, each way, MINIMUM. For a long time, however, I was working a four-day week, with two days at home. So it was bearable. Then they wanted me to come in five days a week. It wasn’t worth it.
Now, with my new job (well, a year old now), driving is 20-30 minutes each way (barring traffic) while pubtrans (Muni to BART to Caltrain) would take hours. So I drive. I give a coworker a lift into the city most evenings, so the conversation is nice. Not too bad.
Still, I would love to be able to commute on pubtrans in a reasonable amount of time. I could get so much DONE! And if I didn’t feel like being productive, I could simply read. (Which is, I know, being productive, but you know what I mean.) Anyway, congrats and I’m definitely envious!
- dugh daren says (September 27th, 2005 at 21:17:36 )
Mookee: the idea with healthcare is my belief that we’d be a bit more free with our time, worry less about details, if the administration and paying of healthcare were simpler and in the hands of a trustworthy third party whose goal was not to make money but to help people. As a comparison think of the military; as a kid if I broke my arm we walked into any military hospital, flash an ID, they fixed it, and we walked out with minimum fuss and no money out of our pockets.
I think you both have valid points about the proximity of home to a job. These days workplaces can go where ever it is convenient for themselves and often people are stuck wherever they can afford to live or by choice *before* they get a job far far away. The car initially made it easier to work farther away and to get those better jobs. Now it makes it almost essential. And because as a society we decided to turn away from public transportation (long distance *and* local) and towards our autos we suddenly find ourselves trapped by the thing that was such freedom previously. That’s my opinion anyways.
I wonder how many other countries have long commutes like Americans too often do? I wonder how we’ll cope once the price of oil gets so high it’s not worth driving our cars anymore?
