in cars

americans live and breath an air of entitlement. i am an american. i can admit it. it is woven into the very fabric of our culture. "service" and "convenience". we demand it.

"the customer is always right."
"i shouldn't have to wait for this."

in addition to these entitlements, we demand our freedom, in which convenience plays a part.

"what is convenient liberates me, it gives me freedom."

at least, this is how convenience is marketed.

these entitlements are personified in the automobile. it provides convenience, which is a gateway to freedom. we can live 100 miles from our jobs. we can drive to the beach. we can shop to our hearts content and stick the booty in the bed/trunk for our drive home. we can drive 1/2 mile to the 7-11 to buy a donut at 3am. this is freedom.

as we now know, there are negatives associated with freedom: global warming; roadkill; smog; garbage; suburbs; exurbs; sprawl; giving money to russia; savaging our environment; giving money to saudi arabia, which turns around and gives it to al-qeda, which turns around and blows up our buildings, thus making every gas guzzling american complicit in september 11. i once pointed this last point out to a car lover on a post somewhere. his response was "grow up." grownups don't live in denial.

in our society, entitlement wins. it is more important to have convenience than air and buildings.

"but, i'd have to move closer to work."
"but, i'd have to ride a subway and sit next to a homeless person."
"but, killers/rapists/etc. ride the bus."
"but, i'd be killed."

there are people who will say, "in a few years, cars will be running on fuel cells/solar/ethanol/bio-diesel/dirt/whatever." i've been hearing this argument not for 5 years, not for 10 years, not even for 20 years, but all my life and guess what, they still don't exist. just 5 years ago all i heard was about how fuel cells were going to save us from ourselves and now i hear nothing. even if these cars were mass produced by every car manufacturer, this doesn't guarantee that anybody will buy them.

i would venture to say that the majority of prius buyers' #1 reason for buying them is mileage. i'm sure that the environment plays a factor in their decision, but it is not a deal breaker. the motivating factor is money and guess what else - convenience. hybrids can ride in the hov lanes for a speedier commute. yippee.

another potential, relating to money being a motivating factor in the decision on which car to buy. if alternative fuel cars were selling in great numbers in the united states, the demand for gasoline declines, which lowers the price of oil, which lowers the price of gas, which lowers the cost of owning a gas guzzler, which lowers the need to buy an alternative fuel auto.

there is still a negative factor associated with non-polluting vehicles. sprawl. just because there is "un-used" land residing outside of our park system, does that mean that every single acre of available land should be filled with townhouses and home depots? this is becoming more of a reality thanks to the automobile, no matter how the automobile is propelled.

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so yeah, cars suck any way you look at them. i gave mine up 17 years ago. lived in san diego for 2 years without one. it was much easier than people make it out to be. i've saved countless thousands of dollars by not owning one. now i get around by foot, bicycle and public transportation. this requires something called effort. effort being in opposition to convenience. effort is also in opposition to progress and evolution, since things are supposed to get easier, not harder. progress is the american way.

public transportation is an option for a lot of people. but to the alienated, suburban lifestyle, trains and subways are symbols of urbanization. auto ownership is tied directly into the suburban lifestyle. the detached home, swimming pool and land rover are a package deal. subways remind people of the cesspool that is new york. subways will allow gang members and vagrants to invade their communities.

i read plenty of transportation blogs and the excuses are always the same:

"but, it doesn't go anywhere."
"but, i'd have to ride a subway and sit next to a homeless person."
"but, it would take longer for me to get from point a to b."
"but, people will never use it."

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many people in this country honestly believe it is their right to own an automobile and feel as passionate about auto ownership as they do gun ownership. they look upon public transportation as a socialist vestige and, more importantly, something to rob them of money to widen their freeways to increase available auto throughput.

republitarians always say, "i don't want to pay any taxes, but i demand to be able to drive on the highway and never, ever hit traffic." ironically, the freeways that provide these folks their freedom are only possible through use of eminent domain laws and government land seizure and insane amounts of tax dollars. underneath those freeways were houses and businesses of other republitarians. where were you when they were fighting to keep their land? where were you when they were fighting to keep their business? you were on the other side of the aisle, demanding more freeways.

it is also ironic that all the republitards, with all their beloved children and how they always go on about protecting their families, spew so much crap out of their tailpipes for those kids of theirs to breath in every day.

and yet another favorite of mine is the complaint about how "no-one" uses public transportation. first off, "no-one" is as vague a statistic as it gets. because buses aren't crammed solid with bodies 24 hours a day doesn't mean that no-one uses them. using the alternative to this logic - if a highway isn't clogged with cars - 24/7, does that mean that no-one drives? why would i want my money spent on highways if nobody uses them?

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all the excuses used to perpetuate auto entitlement and ownership remind me of reasons to stay addicted to a drug or behavior. it would be easy to say we are an auto addicted society, but it is much worse than that. we aren't addicted to cars, but what they represent. we are addicted to convenience, which is a much harder habit to break.

link | rss | share | posted: 2008-01-30 11:50:49