Date: December 19, 2006
Variety in Transportation is as Important as New Technology
Getting ourselves out of our fossil fuel pickle is going to require some significant changes in the way we drive and otherwise get around. Electric & hydrogen vehicles may be the winners in automobile design (provided we can guarantee a safe and clean method of producing the electricity and H2). But one often overlooked piece of the puzzle is the need to diversify the transportation options available to people, a change which has more to do with how we design our neighborhoods and cities than with designing better cars. In most of the United States, you might literally starve to death without access to a car, regardless of what kind of fuel it runs on. In addition to the obvious environental and asthetic trouble this puts the country in, it's a national security concern, not to mention an economic hardship for those with low levels of income as well as a health concern (no walking = fat people). Designing neighborhoods so that it is possible to walk or bike some of the time makes life a lot easier for people and gives them the opportunity to avoid the stress of parking and gridlock with a simple, healthy walk to the store. You might even be able to avoid a gym membership by biking to work. As long as we centralize most commerce in downtown areas (another good idea), commuter trains, with train stations in walkable neighborhoods can give the majority of people an alternative to a stressful driving commute. Europeans may be nodding their heads in aggreement, being already accustomed to such things. Before I start sounding too "anti-car" note that despite Europe's vastly superior variety in infrastructure, per capita car ownership is practically the same as the United States (see here for data) In other words, giving people more options is no threat whatsoever to automobile companies. In fact, a healthier, less stressed consumer base can only help the economy and the companies that depend on it. These sorts of changes are simple and low-tech. They also buy time for us to make the larger technological progress needed to improve our fleet of vehicles. Although I can't get enough of awesome innovations like the Tesla and the h2 bmw, I'd be happy in the short term if people kept driving old gasoline cars as long as they just didn't drive them so darn much.
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At 3:41 AM, December 20, 2006, sl77 said...
That's a good point. I love my car, but here in Frankfurt I canwalk to work and I use the subway system or rental bikes to go to
other parts of the city. My car is actually parked most of the
time. And getting it parked can be quite a hassle...
At 3:42 AM, December 20, 2006, sl77 said...
Vienna had a pretty cool free rental bike system couple yearsago. But in most american cities biking wont get you very far
I guess.
At 11:15 AM, December 20, 2006, Blakers said...
I live in a Houston suburb and it's virtually impossible to getaround in the burbs or the city on foot or bike. There are no
sidewalks outside of neighborhoods because they are the
responsibility of the housing developer, not the local
government. Many people simply have no choice but to take a car.
And Houston has been voted the "fattest city" on several
occassions. Easy to see why.
At 12:03 PM, December 20, 2006, andradef said...
For an American, a car is a statement about his/her personalfreedom. Sensitivity to culture has to be part of any
environmental initiative, otherwise it will fail. The world will
not be able to push its cultural beliefs into America, and
vice-versa. We must work our differences and find out a common
denominator.
At 4:42 PM, December 20, 2006, Nick Aster said...
andradef - my point is that we don't have to give up the car, wejust need to build cities that give people the option of not
using theirs all the time. It's amazing how quickly "personal
freedom" manifests itself in other ways once people are given a
choice!
At 9:03 PM, December 20, 2006, dan19 said...
just a theory, but -- any large scale human created system isessentially organic, as we are, naturally, organic beings.
Organic systems (think ecosystem) are characterized by
redundancy, there being many different critters and/or processes
performing the same ecosystem services at the same time. may seem
wasteful and inefficient, but it is through redundancy that
organic systems achieve resilience. Maybe beauty, too. Anyway,
transportation systems are better when they conform to the
organic model, that is, they provide many ways of getting from
point A to point B. But in America there was a consensus that
efficiency was best served if everybody just used their car, and
so could get rid of trolleys and sidewalks and such. The great
advantage of having everybody using cars is that you could then
build stores and hospitals and schools in out-of-the-way places,
and everybody with a car would still have access to them. Made an
urban planner's life much easier. But people crave that
redundancy, an organic yearning, and cars are great unless you
are forced to use them, and only them, every day. And there is
beauty in the intersection of two trolley tracks, in a shaded
sidewalk, or a bike path along an urban creek. So I agree with
Nick Aster -- having more choice in how we get around means we
will use our cars when we really want to, and if we only drive
when we want to, we'll probably like our cars a lot more than we
do now. But, as I say, just a theory.
At 8:37 PM, December 22, 2006, santelmo said...
@ dan19 - i like your theory. And I agree with Nick, thatpersonal freedom has a lot more depth to it than modes of
transportation
At 10:19 AM, January 10, 2007, pioneersushi said...
How does one convince the majority of automobile owners thatdriving is more a luxury than a right? It seems that the rising
price of fossil fuels as well as the changing environment will
not do it. I think clear messages need to be sent out to
communities and nations, such as politicians and people with
clout using public transportation! Meaning, people that can
afford to drive take a stance on polution.
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