Thursday, June 29
Cars
For a long time, I've been meaning to write a series of posts about why cars are evil, or less hyperbolically: why I go to some lengths to minimise my driving and so strongly support urban design that doesn't favour the car in the way most existing cities (especially in North America) do. I haven't got around to it because I knew that once I started I would end up rambling for a long time before finally feeling like I'd said my piece, and I've neither had the time to do that nor been convinced anyone would still be reading by the end. I may now never get around to it, because the Sightline Institute has been doing such a good job. So here's the lazy version - a list of reasons, most of which I'll just link to other people's posts to justify:- Greenhouse gas emissions. This one doesn't need any further explanation, but it's also not my biggest concern; I care far more about the localised impacts of car use, because I'm just as selfish as everyone else.
- Cars kill and injure people. In all but the most murderous of cities, I'm convinced that getting around by car is more dangerous than using public transport or walking.
- Cars poison us all slowly. There's a lot that can be done to mitigate this, but tightening emissions standards always raises a storm of protest about how much this hurts the poor. This in turn is symptomatic of another problem: the design of cities turning cars from a luxury to a necessity.
- Driving—or more specifically, not using self-powered transport—is bad for our health. Cycling has particularly dramatic health benefits, even though in cities the benefits seem to be reduced by pollution; pollution that is mostly emitted by cars.
- Driving is expensive. It's also heavily subsidised, because there are more indirect costs to driving than are recouped by fuel and car-ownership taxes.
- Sprawl is also heavily financially subsidised, in addition to taking open land out of the commons and into private, fenced-off ownership.
- Driving (especially alone) eats up time, a resource of which no-one seems to have enough.
- I find driving in traffic stressful and unpleasant. While cycling or sitting in a slow bus in traffic are not the world's greatest joys, I find them both a lot less unpleasant than driving.
- Driving isolates people from each other. I strongly believe that this contributes to all manner of other social ills, including lack of concern for other peoples' welfare, social isolation, and generalised fear and suspicion of strangers.
- Localised pollution from cars turns urban areas grey and ends up poisoning fish in waterways.
See what I mean about having a lot to say? And to cap it all, all of these evils can be minimised by sensible urban design. That's always going to achieve more than trying to appeal to individuals to leave their car behind when most simply don't have a realistic choice (I have the privilege of living somewhere very central in one of the US's more walkable big cities), and it can be done, if the political will is there.
posted @ 7:52 PM -
Thursday, June 1
Where the updates are
I'm finding I don't feel like blogging anywhere near as often as I used to. Instead, I'm taking and uploading photos much more regularly than before, and these days my photos are a much better tracker of what I've been up to than my infrequent rants and raves here. I might just shut this blog down altogether, or I might keep it ticking over sporadically. Meanwhile, here's what I do update regularly:The photoblog - selected photos, usually 4-5 a week [RSS]
My flickr stream - loads of photos, in no particular order [RSS]
Flickr photo sets - more organised, but usually lagging a little behind (for instance the most recent 3 sets are all incomplete at the moment).
