The entire point of the film Carspiracy was to highlight the irrational angle at which we approach the automobile. That was the point of the entire film. And the fervor this post invoked, the sign of a good blog, almost entirely missed this point. We had the “Never gonna work,” people and we had the “This makes we want to dig my bike out of the garage,” folks. And, thankfully, we had a mass congealment in the middle. We also had those with extensive bike infrastructure experience and those who hate bicycles, cyclists, lycra and clean air. To be expected.
By the way, if your hate of lycra is powering your view on bicycles, you are so incredibly insecure you might want to seek treatment. That’s just a tired, lame story that played itself out decades ago. I’ve also noticed something about those who focus on the lycra. They have never liked bicycles and most of the time aren’t fit enough to utilize one now. Not all but many. You could add both my parents to this list. My mom hated bicycles and my father was too overweight for lycra. I do have one photograph of my mother standing next to one of the countless bicycles we tried to get to use, and the look of disgust on her face is palpable. It’s also hilarious.
My prior post provoked a call from a childhood friend. Someone I speak with maybe once a year. He and I are on opposite sides of most things, BUT WE STILL TALK. He’s racist, antisemitic and once told me he didn’t care what happened to anyone else if he was doing okay. (I’m not racist but….) He’s been complaining about traffic since we were in elementary school. And he’s lived in just about every city you can name in the US. He called to tell me how bicycles were evil and the cause of most societal woes. To be expected. (We used to ride BMX bikes when we were little.)
“I have four questions for you,” I said. “Okay, go,” he said.
- Are there more cars on the road today than there were ten years ago?
- Is the average commute time up or down?
- Is there more traffic or less traffic today than ten years ago?
This prompted a quick change of subject as he deflected to talking about the past adventures we barely survived. “I’m serious,” I said. “These should be simple answers.” “Nobody wants to ride bikes,” he said.
“I’ll answer them for you,” I countered. “There are more cars, more traffic and commute times are up.” “But that’s not the entire story,” I added.
People are buying more cars but we are driving less. This could lead to future gains when it comes to traffic. “Could” being the key word. My buddy is a COVID denier, but his denial flip flops on a regular basis. At first, COVID was a Democratic hoax to make Trump look bad, but now Biden’s COVID response is why the economy sucks. This is modern, radicalized logic so stay with me here people. COVID, whether you believe in it or not, massively changed our habits. We are now a “stay home” culture. We buy more new cars but don’t drive them as much.
Commute times are up, but slightly. A roughly 14% increase over a multi-decade time frame. And, you haters will love this, the LONGEST average commute time, 46 minutes, is connected to those who use public transit, especially the bus network. And yes, traffic sucks and is on the rise. No big surprise there. But there is also something that many people are leaving out of the equation here. MONEY. The average driver is losing 104 hours per year to traffic.($2300 added cost which would almost cover my new iPad, motorcycle or calf implants.) There are 233 million drivers in America. I’m no math guy but that’s a lot of hours. Again, for you haters, cut those numbers by two thirds. STILL a huge amount of time being lost. Lost time means lost revenue. But it gets worse.
The statistic that gets left out is the “fewer trips to areas of commerce.” These are down by THIRTY PERCENT. Holy shit. That is astounding. People are driving to areas of commerce thirty percent less than they were before. Imagine the economic hit. Not wanting to sit in traffic means you are staying home. Now, are we compensating in some other way? Most likely. However, how many people complain about the invasion of box stores and the death of family businesses? And how do you not connect this, at least in part, to the automobile?
My final question to my friend was “Is this the system you want to leave to your kids and grandkids?” “We know it isn’t working. We know it is only getting worse, and yet you seemingly have no ability to even question the dynamic.” And this, my friends, was the entire point of Carspiracy. Automobiles do not fit our logic profile. We are irrationally tied to them when we clearly know the damage being done. And for those of you who thought I had some master solution to all this, that’s a cop out too. Go ahead, point a finger at me. It just shows you have no solution either, or worse yet, are in total denial.
PFAS chemicals are all the rage now. Turns out, they are bad. They are in you and me, and your children too. All of us have PFAS. ALL OF US. The only blood without PFAS was blood frozen before the Korean War. And maybe Keith Richards, but I have not independently verified that. So, what are we trying to do now? Eliminate PFAS chemicals.
For any of you old enough, do you remember Ivory soap? How about the original Tide and its “Ocean of Bubbles.” What did these little gems do besides creating the Soap Opera industry? They led to our rivers and lakes being overcome with toxic bubbles that began our love affair with algae blooms. There were soap icebergs off the coast of Denmark. Lake Erie was a dead zone. In some places, bubbles topped seawalls five stories high! And sure, there were politicians who said “Well, the sacrifice of our lakes and rivers is what we need for clean clothes.” Sound familiar? Thankfully, those with at least some semblance of decency began the campaign to make changes. Problem, determine cause, make chances, correct problem. Too logical?
Well, when it comes to automobiles, maybe it is too logical. Again, this was the ENTIRE POINT. We can’t seem to use logic with cars because we have created a society so enslaved by the device. It’s FAR easier to complain about bicycles than solve any issue dealing with the car. Even bringing up the question triggers people to the point they lose the ability to think logically. Add cars to the “no-go” holiday topics of politics and religion.
Yesterday, as I was taking a back road out of Santa Fe on my moto, I came to a small patch of gridlock. This is odd for our city. Parents picking up kids from school. Clogging the tiny, two-lane road in both directions. Single parents idling in cars while waiting for school to let out. How is it possible to see this situation and not say “Well, that’s something we can fix.” Is our goal for Milwaukee or Jacksonville or Modesto to be Bangkok or Delhi or Beijing? That’s where we are headed. If you can’t at least ponder the beginnings of what might be partial solutions then why are you still complaining about traffic?
I’ve said this many times before, I believe humans were destined to destroy themselves from the moment we left the ooze. We love conflict. We have an innate sense of darkness. Cars are one of our favorite things. Status symbols, tools, entertainment. Fast and furiously funneling us down to end times at less than 5mph. Love bikes, hate bikes, I don’t care. The question to ask is “Can I think logically about the automobile?” This does not mean people like me are saying we need to get rid of cars. Again, a total cop out. Hate, anger and fear will not lead to solutions.
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I’m a commuter myself (34km one-trip), since Covid only twice a week (we’ve got the opportunity to work from home three days a week). My car is a 2018 model Honda Fit (called the “Jazz” in Europe), a small subcompact with combustion engine. I think climate change is a thing, so I considered to replace the Fit with an electric car. Thing is, there are almost no electric subcompacts on the market! By far most electric cars are in the SUV segment. Why is this? The SUV provides more prestige for the customer, and thus the profit margin for the car maker is larger. And: Apart from buying a house, the money spent on cars are by far the biggest investment made by private households. A house you buy once, whereas cars are replaced regularly. In fact, this (and the oil industry in its wake) has been an important cornerstone for the growth of capitalist economies for almost a hundred years. I think this explains why nobody is interested in tackling the automotive excess we’re witnessing right now.
If you take out cars, you have to rethink our economical system (which is not a bad thing, imho).
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I love that they call it a jazz. We have decent compact electric here, but I see mostly Tesla and Rivian which are far beyond the reach of most Americans. And we have a decent infrastructure. Depending on November, it will get better or will be killed off, most likely.
The older I get and the more I try to stay informed, the more I find myself thinking about a movie that isn’t even my genre, but it perfectly captures the essence of the social and political debates we’re facing today: Idiocracy.
I still remember the documentary that sent me close to depression at 18, back in 2006 “An Inconvenient Truth”, and how much hope there still was back then. The world has only gotten worse, and we’ve done nothing, or at least not nearly enough. What we care about are all these amazing conveniences we’ve been conditioned to desire, which suck up our time and make us increasingly ignorant. It’s truly incredible.
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I remember “Truth” but not Idiocracy. Sounds funny. What we can’t lose track of are the GOOD things happening. However few…
FWIW, my source on the role of cars in the capitalist economy: “The Black Book of Capitalism: A Farewell to the Market Economy” by Robert Kurz (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schwarzbuch_Kapitalismus). Cited from the Wikipedia article: “Furthermore, Kurz perceives mass car traffic as “total automobilization,” a state resembling war that has claimed approximately 17 million lives throughout the 20th century. These “human sacrifices” are presented as normal, necessary, and inevitable.”
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Ha, that sounds about right. We shot ourselves in the foot from the 1970s on. Sure, it started long before that but we did have a national dialogue in the 70s, about this very thing, and we chose auto over human.
Thanks Thomas for this source. I will train my German skills by reading it as no translated version seems to be available.
It really makes no sense. However, good sense seems to be a rarity. I’m reminded of the old saying “don’t shit where you eat”. The Earth, the people on it of all stripes… you’d think we’d want to protect and care for this beautiful planet, like that would be the majority attitude. “…humans were destined to destroy themselves from the moment we left the ooze.” Apparently humankind is a failed experiment. There’s a part of me that thinks that. There’s another part of me that can’t. There are some damn good people walking this Earth. Some of them have made the most beautiful art in every form imaginable. I believe that art stems from the awe of what we have here. From the miraculous engineering of us and the ecosystem of this planet. Of heart. Of noticing. Of being awake and mindful enough to see it and feel it and try and communicate some miniscule aspect of that ineffable stuff that makes us stop and stare in wonder. This feeling I have is damn hard to sustain given the state of things. Yet, by some miracle, I cannot shake it or dismiss it or make it not there anymore. It keeps some sliver of hope burning in me.
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That’s good. You can give up, as some have based on their comments here, or you can learn, adapt, make smart decisions, regardless of what your neighbor does.
Cars are and have been more than just a means of transport. Men are responsible for the sexualisation of the car. Looking back, cars were the macho throb. Starsky & Hutch virtually drove around in a six pack on wheels. The Batmobile, Whacky races….fast ‘fork you’ cars were what the boys wanted. I think that macho car culture has diminished substantially, but we have to acknowledge that cars are status. It’s where we listen to music, often louder than anywhere else, it’s an extension of what we want to show to our peers. I loved cars up until I was about 35 then they just became a form of transport. My son who’s 20 couldn’t care less about cars, it’s never mentioned amongst his male or female friends. The dial is definitely moving in the right direction. Certainly in the UK cars are inextricably tied to your job. More often than not, a car is part of the package, so it’s a moving payslip. Footballers use them to showcase their wealth, often owning a fleet of £500,000 cars; their boyhood dream fulfilled, and some. We all conform to this status in one way or another. I doubt most electric car owners give much thought to the environment, they drive these cars because they are new and expensive. I think we have to address the status issue just as much as anything else. When cars become ‘uncool’ is when we’ll see the slow withdrawal of the auto, it’s probably not too far away.
Neil makes a lot of great points. I was never all that into cars, but even through my 20s there were cars I thought, dang, I’d like to have one of those. Those days are long gone. I just want a reliable, safe car that has a spare tire and a jack. I have a 2014 Subaru that I hope lasts me another 10 years. I don’t drive often, so it’s not unrealistic. I still occasionally find myself longing for an old, angry, tough as nails pickup truck, a Wagoneer, or a Steve Mcqueen style Mustang haha. If I drove more, I would want an electric or a hybrid. But as it is, in the past 8 years, I haven’t contributed much to the carbon footprint with my car.
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I still love the Toyota Yaris, two-door, more than anything. Sure, do I want to lift it, put on all terrains, a brush guard, roof rack and rally lights, and add 200hp. Then take a hot lap of South America.
I can relate… one day when I was a girl, growing up in small town in Texas, my grandmother and I ran across this fella driving a beautiful, buttercream yellow Mercedes. “What is that?” my grandmother asked him. You could hear the awe in her voice. We just didn’t see cars like this where I’m from. This experience certainly shaped my preferences as for years, I was an admitted car snob. If it wasn’t European, it wasn’t shit. I’ve had the pleasure of driving many lovely cars. There was the convertible Triumph with its rosewood steering wheel. A couple of Saabs. SAAB = something almost always broken. An Audi. The last was a little Fiat 500. That one nearly got me killed several times; other drivers just didn’t see it. I’ve left out a few. Without exception and even though I remember these cars fondly, every single one of them was a giant pain in the ass. FIAT = Fix it again, Tony. After the Fiat, I got myself a 2015 Subaru and I intend to drive it until the wheels fall off. Like Scott, I don’t drive it much. I was still heavy into biking when I first got it. Covid meant staying home. The thing doesn’t even have 60K miles yet. I love it though, for its utility and reliability. It’s an appropriate machine should I ever need to flee the zombie apocalypse. Her name is Finn (think big, blue whale) and she’s a shade of blue that reminds me very much of a Carolina blue sky. Maybe in my middle age, I’ve gotten a little wiser with where I let my affections lead me. Here’s hoping.
ps: Scott, I had a brief fling with an old Jeep Wagoneer years ago. Had to have been the Texas big truck influence. It didn’t have the wood panels but instead an orange and russet design on cream. The console was so huge it was like having a coffee table next the driver’s seat. And big, gorgeously nubby Michelin tires. You had to turn the hubs in the front wheels if you wanted to utilize the 4 wheel drive. I felt like the Queen of the Road in that thing. However, it got all of 12 mpg. Can you imagine such an atrocity!?
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We had a Wagoneer in Wyoming as a kid. It remained garaged and only saw the sun during our family outings to town, which were infrequent. My parents had one before I was born. Many of us have had near death experiences in cars. Most of mine were self-inflicted. The fact we survived proves the world has a sense of humor.
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Right on Neil. Very true. I kinda feel like a lot of wealthy folks I know are attempting to live a life as close to a Lexus commercial as humanly possible.
At 20 I reflected on the state of mankind being horrible (it was the 80ies). Almost 40 years later I reflect on the state of mankind being horrible, again. I can conclude it’s the same downwards spiral of horror for me. I tried and partially succeeded to live a car-less life. Though I must admit it’s gone wrong being older and concluding all my effort didn’t make a slightest bit of difference. Going back to my 80ies post-punk attitude: no hope, no future. It’s dark, it’s black. Sorry for destroying your optimistic attempt Dan.
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I think you have to remember the GOOD things. Like your daughter’s paintings. And know that you can’t wait for anyone else. You do what you can.
All this does is fan the flames for more doom scrolling. Take a walk, read some poetry, listen to some music. What if it all just works out. Contemplate that maybe you’re not the smartest man in the room.
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Way to give up Chuck. If you are doom scroller then maybe you should look for treatment. I see hope in places like Victoria. When did you become a life coach?
I like bikes and don’t have anything against Lycra…except for one overweight dude in our neighborhood who seems to bubble out of his Lycra, but hey, he’s out there pedaling. And I dare say there are other, suspicious chemicals floating around in Keith Richards.
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I’ve made some observations about anti-lycra folks over the years. 1. many are overweight. 2. They hate bicycles in general and use the stupid lycra story as a cop out. 3. They are some of the worst dressed people I’ve ever seen, so making fun of lycra is a bit like the pot calling the kettle black.
Dan, I’m a doomer, child of the 80ies. We got Reagan, we got Tatcher, we got Tsjernobyl, we got the Russians in Afghanistan, we had cold war doomday scenarios, we were in a constant alert of Russian and US nukes flying over and into our heads ( https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XKX-T_CYzdY ) . The good things you’re referring to are indeed my counterweight. Art (and literature) could save the world. Artist free of bounderies were and are the only ones who really can transfer people and surely myself into an( imaginary) better world. Hail to them, they keep me floating.
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I don’t know if any of these things will save the world but they are at least fun to contemplate in the times before end times. Watch Terminator 2.
Oh the frustrations with message / comments boards. I can’t reply directly to Ellen279. Ellen, I loved your comment. That is some great writing! This Milnor guy seems to draw in some great writers, photographers, and bookmakers.
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agreed