Pop Quiz - Car Culture
1. What percentage of the land use in the average American town is devoted to the automobile?
2. What is the average annual cost of owning and operating a car?
3. What is the most popular car?
Answer for yourself then look below the fold.
1. As high as 65% for Los Angeles, 40-55% for other places. Figures include: parking garages, residential garages and driveways, parking lots, street system, car dealerships, car repair facilities, car junk yards, impound lots, etc.
2. Figures vary but $7,000/year is a good average. Cost includes depreciation, maintenance, gas, insurance, etc. A two income family could easily save enough to buy a home if they could get by
with one car.
3. Toy cars. We program kids from an early age to want/expect their own vehicle.
The above was paraphrased from a listserv I belong to. To me, it's a scandal. How much of our civic soul have we given over to the automobile without even realizing it. I could make a case for most of our societal ills being not the fault of fast food or violent video games or declining church attendance, but as a result of our indentured servitude to a car-dependent world. I know it's hard to imagine, but it doesn't have to be this way. You don't even have to give up your car (I even love to drive when my car doesn't have a giant hole in an exhaust pipe, which, you know, it has right now).
We're slaves, man. Slaaaaves!!
January 14th, 2005 at 11:18 am
I love my car (http://tinyurl.com/3udyq), guess I’m a happy slave.
January 14th, 2005 at 11:19 am
I love my car (http://tinyurl.com/3udyq), guess I’m a happy slave.
January 14th, 2005 at 11:20 am
Sigh, sorry for the double post… your anti-spam the confuzzled me.
January 14th, 2005 at 3:01 pm
Hey, I like my car too. But do you like sitting in traffic? Do you like the smell of exhaust on major roads? Do you like the fact that most people don’t know their neighbors?
(I usually delete most double posts, so don’t anyone sweat it)
January 14th, 2005 at 4:54 pm
> Hey, I like my car too. But do you
> like sitting in traffic?
Before this car? No. Now that I have Vanessa, I don’t mind so much.
> Do you like the smell of exhaust on
> major roads?
You have me there. Who likes the smell of exhaust?
> Do you like the fact that most people
> don’t know their neighbors?
I know my neighbors well enough to know I don’t want to know them any better… but I understand what you are saying. The automobile creates sprawl and the increased mobility means folks move into areas where they don’t know anybody.
January 14th, 2005 at 11:05 pm
i like my car. i like driving. i even like traffic if i have a good cd in. and i love not knowing my neighbors.
January 15th, 2005 at 6:47 pm
And thus, Erynne, you are what’s wrong with America. You and rap music.
January 16th, 2005 at 3:52 am
i hate rap music. i hope that helps.