I’ve been thinking about my relationship with cars lately because of the way I find that it contrasts with most other people. Having an unfashionable viewpoint is nothing new to me, but in this case I feel mine has substance. I believe that, whether they know it or not, cars are the source of many people’s agony. Think about it. Cars place large requirements on your time and money. Coping with automobile traffic is an affair often steeped in frustration and danger. Those who’ve made a substantial financial investment in a car often find themselves mired in worry about the well being of their purchase as well as the social motivations that prompted it.
I personally believe one of the worst aspects of the automobile is the stigma attached to it as a possession. A car is a status symbol. A car supposedly speaks volumes about its owner. A car is used to attract mates and incite greed in others. We are conditioned to desire these qualities in an automobile so strongly that we often go to extreme lengths to satisfy this need.
We’ll place ourselves in oppressive debt to own a car whose inflated price tag provides no material difference in its ability to move from point A to point B. While the financial folly is glaring, the less obvious ramifications are not. Despite the absurdity of placing ourselves in such a poor financial position, we won’t hesitate to look down our noses at those less foolish than us that choose to content themselves with far more modest purchases. This sort of baseless pride is infectious and creates a contrived inequality between people that is damaging to notions of inclusiveness and kindredness. It arbitrarily seeks to stratify us by a means so absurd and yet so widely observed.
Cars also imbue us with a sense of entitlement. Every time I see an animal carcass lying eviscerated on the side of a busy highway I feel sad and, more importantly, ashamed to be a party to it. We’ll forge roads wherever we like and, once there, it becomes ours. We are not kind and light-footed interlopers. We are conquerors. We bend our surroundings to our will. A road is a symbol of subjugation. It is ours and we’ll use it how we please. We remain unfazed as our children peer out from their backseat window at the disregarded remains of an animal shoved to the shoulder of the road and the margins of our thoughts. No more poignant commentary on our relationship with nature needs to be made.
Dominance over the wilds isn’t the only sense of entitlement a car affords us, though. As a cyclist I know this all-too-well. While we all contribute equal money to the construction and maintenance of our roads, we are certainly not permitted the same equality in its use. Cyclists, runners, and others of our ilk are marginalized and, worse yet, often vilified. There is a strange collective assumption that those is a car have, by default, a far more important destination than those that are not. Alternative forms of transportation are considered to be mere novelties. It’d seem that this is largely predicated on the fact that, ultimately, cars will get you there (wherever that may be) faster. But what if we applied this logic without exception? Would, then, the jet airplane render the car a bauble no more significant than a bicycle?
Of course it’d be myopic of me not to recognize that cars are also of great benefit to us. They allow us to transport goods and people in a timely and efficient fashion. They’ve provided us the ability to make great societal advancements and afforded most individuals opportunities they most likely wouldn’t have had without them (myself included). However, like most conveniences borne of technology, the car’s use has proliferated and evolved into something far beyond its original design. Stepping back and reevaluating their true necessity would provide us the understanding of how we could curtail our use and construction of automobiles. It’d challenge us to think creatively about transportation and adopt healthy and productive changes to our collective lifestyle. By doing so I envision a shift of focus onto the simpler yet more important things we have and, as a result, a much happier society.
