Top Ten Revelations

1. Design of Society

Quote: “ever-busy, ever-building, ever-in-motion, ever-throwing-out the old for the new, we have hardly paused to think about what we are so busy building, and what we have thrown away.” (Kunstler 10)

The very moment that movement was made possible, made fast, made accessible the shape of the country changed, but more importantly the structure of society changed, drastically.   

Transportation had a major impact on the formation of society, the culture of consumption, sprawl increased and communities decreased. This modern era is now facing a contradiction between the accessibility and convenience of mobility, and the separation with community, and nature.  How society developed is destructible, how we’ve damaged the land, grew outward and and damaged our relationship with each other. Through sprawl citizens spend more time in the car, transporting between strip malls and suburbia, decreasing their interactions with humans. On average, Americans are choosing to drive even short distance because of the convenience and the social norm it’s becoming, but communities can only be developed through human interaction, walking to local stores, supporting local economies, which lacking in our type of society. Thus, through this class I’m torn between the benefits of transportation and the social costs of transportation to our society. 

2. Self Curation through Cars / Identities

Quote: ‘What do I like about this car?! I like the way I look in it.” ( Lutz, 2)

One theme that has always been present throughout my interaction with vehicles, without really realizing it has been the idea of self curation.  Driving down the familiar streets of my hometown in high school, arms would flail outside windows to passing cars for living in a suburb meant excessive driving, but it also meant we all could identify individuals by the exterior of their car without even seeing them. Car’s mean more than their use of transportation, cars are a statement. In American Graffitti we saw this as each character was remembered and acknowledged by their car, we met the cars before we met the drivers. Cars are a form of self expression, especially since society is designed and structured in a way that unfortunately promotes driving. It’s similar to the way we dress, we get to choose the clothes that go on our back with a mission of making some sort of statement, if we realize it or not. Are we clean cut, with a sleek car, or grubby with a  broken down junker. Cars can even express power, the way we choose to drive our vehicles can reflect parts of our personalities that we might not even realize. Cars are both a way of expression and curation. We can be what we want behind the wheel. We’re designing the look and feel we exhibit, or wish for people to interpret of us, as drivers, and as personalities. 

3. Issue of race 

Quote: “...midcentury guidebooks Travelguide and The Negro Motorist Green Book...directed black drivers to hospitable roadside lodging, restaurants, and mechanical assistance...” (Seiler, 106)

I think this concept of individualism and freedom is completely contradicted by this new idea of power of the road, what was meant to serve as each mans form of freedom suddenly has this separation of power and control of the road, and this power of the white. I think it was interesting that African Americans emerged from the civil rights movement with a degree of equality and now were faced with a new concept of the right to freedom of the open road. Something meant to be an escape, to be free, was now diverging into a new road, a road of separation. Here we’re witnessing an era of racial profiling of drivers, the roads suppose to be free, but it doesn’t deliver to all. What shocked me the most about this idea though was later in Seiler's book was the quote that read, “The increasingly affluent, numerous, and mobile members of the black middle class, the guidebook editors suggested, were more identifiable by their status as consumers than by their race.” (119) This wraps all back into this whole culture of consumerism, that we created this unnecessary battle, but altered it only to better the economy and wealth, but increasing African American’s rights to drive so they could consume... 

4.Individuality / conformity

Quotes: 

A) “individuality was ‘an expression and confirmation of social life’. And thus “expressive individualism” goes hand in hand with “consumer culture,”so what does individualism even mean?”

B) “Permeating this discourse was the dread of conformity...a number of cultural critics diagnosed what Archibald Macleish called, ‘a massive, almost glacial, shift away from the passion for individual freedom and toward a desire for security of association, of belonging, of conformity.” (Seiler, 76)

Semi related to the topic of self expression and curation there is this big idea of individuality and the beginning of the era of open road, that has filtered into this question of conformity. After spending some time thinking about this topic in Republic of Drivers and carrying the past into the future, in the sense of self curation. Seiler quotes, “its characteristics were mobility and choice; its embodiment was a driver.” (35) Individualism is not necessary one expressing themselves in their own means, as we thought, but its more the way society perceives them and therefore the way they wish to be perceived. Therefore while their expressing their individuality their confirming and responding to social life. Thus we’ve developed this idea of a consuming culture, especially as I mentioned above in self curation, we strive for individual identities yet we’re gathering the resources their consumer culture supplies us with, through coincidentally advertisements, and thus conforming to societies false ideas on the need to define one self by their expression and individuality. I almost see it as a trap, this is what happens when society experiences advancements, increases consumption, then struggles for individuals to see who they are in this culture. Thus, I struggle now with the idea and difference between individuality and conformity, it’s almost a cycle. The car fosters the illusion of individuality but creates the collective. 

5. Escape / Freedom  

Quote: “...automobility provided the crucial illustration of American freedom.” (Seiler, 81)

Initially while we began reading Seiler, we are introduced to the road in the early stages, finding freedom requires mobility, and mobility requires specific rights. So here we have this illusion of freedom, we have the introduction of the highway system and this idea of open road, but at the initial stages this could also be utilized by some and not others. So it’s essentially a freedom for only some through an unjust system, but as rights change we now currently have everyone utilizing the open roads. I think prior to the advancement of technology the car was indeed a space for escape, it was a way to free oneself from an issue, to escape a situation, to use this  vessel to transport out of a place of dislike to one of like, or just to drive, the freedom to go anywhere. However, as we watch modern commercials, like the one above I feel as though we’re losing the initial idea of escape of freedom the car once supplied. Phones are being built into cars, emails can be read by an automated voice while once drives, we’re taking the stresses of life with us. In chapter seven of Carjacked, Lutz, also brings up the idea that urban sprawl has taken away our freedom and increased the amount of time we spend in our car, affected our physical and mental health as well as our social lives. Which could send me on another rant of the loss of community due to the car, but overall I feel the car is struggling to serve the purpose of escape in an advancing world. 

6. Electric Cars

Quote: "Electric cars should be part of the solution — but the focus should be first on reducing use, providing real alternatives to the car, building communities that enable walking and biking, and living in ways that reduce our auto-dependence." (Richard Watts)

Electric Cars were certainly a topic of interest in this course. I personally support the idea of the electric car, while I still strongly encourage mass transit, and carpooling over each individual driving, but if we had the resources for everyone to drive an electric car I support it. I think watching the first movie, Who Killed The Electric Car, it was so interesting to realize the combined efforts of oil companies, consumers, and the government had on this topic. While learning a lot about renewable energies this semester in another course and listening to Tim Dechristopher discuss his ideas of renewable energies and the power oil companies have in keeping them from gaining speed, I understand why it’s challenging to make progress. Again, we face this issue of society always choosing the easiest cheapest option, and oil companies are concentrating the wealth of the world within this small groups of people and making this shift near impossible. We need an entire discombobulation of the way the economy and the politics work, we need to shake things up to make renewable energies emerge successfully, and electric cars to catch on. 

7. Biking and Anthropology 

Quote: "For example, sociologist Robert Putnam found that every additional 10 minutes spent driving cuts community involvement by 10 percent: “The car and the commute ... are bad for community life.” (Richard Watts)

Oh goodness, this might be my favorite topic. After spending five months exploring and experiencing the beauty of Complete Streets in Copenhagen, Denmark I have this building energy inside me to change the way America’s streets are designed. I think our society is too dependent on the vehicle, and we possess this access to simple change, the bike. Biking is excellent for the social good of everyone, reducing our use of gasoline, it’s affordable for almost all, its convenient, great for health and it increases community! 

8. Advertisements - Media - power tools 

Quote: “From the perspective of carmakers, the ideal consumer is one who is unhappy with what he has a year later.” (Lutz, 34)  

Visit Page for Video:

http://www.theatlanticcities.com/commute/2013/11/finally-bicycle-ad-s-sexy-one-car/7735/

Spending two semesters working with you, Rob, I’ve completely changed the way I look at advertisements. Their powerful tools that hook the viewer that we rarely notice as consumers of advertisements, but spending hours in the classroom analyzing just how they’ve used these persuasion techniques is fascinating. Media has a crucial role in sustaining this societies habits of consumption and it’s ironic how much money in spent in advertisements, only for people to spend more in the products, society is structured off quite a cycle of consumption. While I intended for this observation to be on the idea of power tools, I think overall it’s just been very interesting semester observing how the cars and media have shaped our culture and society mostly in relation to a consuming society. 

9. Pop Culture, Cars, and Beautiful Women

Quote: “The auto was born in a masculine manger, and when women sought to claim its power , they invaded a male domain.” (Seiler, 50)

Recently I was shown a video on how women in the 21st century are depicted in society. While I think women have made great strides through the years, I think it’s fair to say that media and gender stereotypes, and specifically for this class, men and their “decorative mobile beautiful cargo” appear constantly in media, car commercials, the hit songs of modern times, and especially in movies. However, I recently watched another film, The Signs of Sex Appeal, and in this case the way woman look at men. The film essentially explained woman and their material influence. Woman will woman will go for less attractive man who are financially stable, because its a desire to take care of their child and they believe that if their husband is less attractive than them they won’t leave them and thus will continue to care and help with their children. And this idea was further related to their attraction to nice cars (see clip above- The Signs of Sex Appeal), they don’t focus on the image of the man, but instead of the image of the car - thus the attraction and judgement directed through materialistic culture. Overall, I’m torn between trying to understand the female incentive towards a financially stable male based on his car, compared to the depiction of females simply being beautiful cargo and nothing more. I think society deals again with this values in consumption, and thus causing women to objectify their men while simultaneously men objectifying women through media... an unhealthy balance. 

10. Consumption

Quote:  "not movement as such, it is access to people and facilities” (Seiler, 23).

Overall, rereading all my revelations thus far, we have racial issues, societal infrastructure issues, individualism versus conformity issues, and feministic issues, that all appear to relate back to this culture based on consumption. What I conclude is that media and cars have created the culture of consumption that we live in now. The road that the car has brought us down, has been a long winding confusing path, that created it’s own problem and issues, but I think it’s also brought us freedom, mobility, and connectivity on a global scale that wouldn’t have been possible without it. 

Eli 10 Revelations

10 revelations

1.     Roads are everywhere, but they used to be nowhere.

“Eighty percent of everything ever built In America has been built in the last fifty years.” (Kunstler 10)

Though I’ve always known this, this class has sometimes me very conscious of this when I see a road. A few times this semester, when walking to school, crossing Pearl Street, when looking to the Adirondacks across the lake, I’m automatically reminded that the street I’m crossing used to be untamed land. Then I’m in awe of how huge the highway system is, and how much we dependent on it, even though it’s so new. It’s so big that even when we’re away, it’s never too far…Seiler said that we are never more than 22 miles away from a road.

2.     Roads are here for a reason.

“…the interstates [can be characterized] as a massive piece of propaganda expressing what one 1966 commentator called ‘the intense dedication of our age to motion.” (Seiler, kindle loc 916)

Geography of Nowhere began the story of the road with the colonization of the United States, describing how different settlements structured towns differently. His story goes on to present day, overlapping with Seiler’s Republic of Drivers, which explains what led to the highway’s permanence. The government posited the highway as a means of acting out freedom and autonomy, which everyone really wanted when industry was so Taylorized, when the US was so preoccupied by communism. Many cities would later phase out significant amounts of their public transportation, notably Detroit. Everyone’s to blame - the government and the citizen. Both knew very early on that cars were the future, but recklessly accelerated the path to the future by making sacrifices, thus increasing our overall dependency on the car before we knew how to handle it.

3.     Roads have reorganized culture and have made lots of places less interesting.

“The car, is the other connection to the outside world, but to be precise it connects the inhabitants to the inside of the car, not to the outside world per se. The outside world is only an element for moving through, as submarines move through water.” (Kunstler 167)

Kunstler described in great detail the death of the American town, how there’s more land in the US taken up by towns containing gated communities and strip malls and parking lots, and less land taken up by towns with their own unique character. Many people drive to work, alone from their suburban home every day, not feeling the need to stimulate the culture of their town of residence. The American middle class has diluted their own sense of place, because they don’t do most of their work or living where they sleep.

4.     Roads have changed the meaning of convenience.

“…Americans have been primarily basing their decisions about where to live not on the length or difficulty of their commute but on the real and perceived value of their housing.”  (Lutz 132)

Nowadays convenience seems to be more synonymous with “cheap,” than with “nearby.” People drive to big box stores and buy cheap items at high quantities. Sometimes, there is no nearby locally owned store that person could shop at if they wanted to.  Again, suburban sprawl and the rise of corporations led to this sort of behavior/lifestyle.

5.     Roads are dangerous, and most people don’t think about the danger.

“Tens of thousands of motorists die in cars every year, yet Americans have a strangely detached attitude about it…The road is now like television, violent and tawdry.” (Kunstler 131)

We sacrifice safety to drive, and though it’s something most drivers are aware of, it’s not at the forefront of their minds. As described in Carjacked, drivers are often more overweight and are exposed to PBDE’s and exhaust. As consumers, we trust car manufacturers – “an internet poll conducted in 2003 showed that car buyers believe that if corporations market an auto or an option, and the government permits it, then the product is probably safe.” (Lutz 174) We also like the idea of cars that are “safe to crash.” (Lutz 195)

6.     Roads restrict freedom and are used as a means of expressing it.

“As one auto executive put it, Americans love ‘the idea of driving’ more than they love the reality of driving.” (Lutz 143)

We think that cars and the open road will grant us freedom through mobility; instead our vehicles restrict our lifestyles. Lengthy commutes and road rage & frustration make driving annoying, and driving is necessary for many. It’s interesting how some people spend so much time deciding what car to get, what car is most “them,” and then using it to do things they don’t really want to do. This definitely isn’t the case for most people, but there are a number of people who like the idea of driving more than doing it. In more abstract terms, Seiler suggests “the act of driving…as the crucial compensation for apparent losses to autonomy, privacy, and agency.” (Seiler loc 200)

7.     Roads have hierarchies.

“Mobility relies on immobility.” (Seiler loc 1372)

In Republic of Drivers, Cotten Seiler describes how white men are favored on the highway. Police make preconceived judgments about persons of color. Persons of color used the Travel Guide and Negro Motorist Green Book to find routes and places to stay where they wouldn’t find trouble. As for women - even when they were finally included on the road, their driving was seen as a symbol of domestic tasks, where as for men it was a symbol of freedom.

8.     Roads contain human identities.

“The auto industry has encouraged the consumer’s idea that the car should be an expression of who he or she uniquely is, as competing makers segment the market, trying to carve out certain demographic groups for their different brands.” (Lutz 27)

Many drivers use their cars to express their identities, or to create an ideal version of themselves. Drivers feel the need to express themselves on the road for many reasons, from feeling no individuality at work, to being oppressed by American society. This brings up the concept of the individual creating their identity by buying things that are in line with the way they want to see themselves. Sometimes buying a car will make someone happy. I was really not excited for Todd’s Tesla talk but I enjoyed it in a weird psychedelic way…for an hour my opinion of consumerism shifted to one where buying something can be good for people. I was struck by how happy everyone in the class was during the talk, all because of a car and what that car means.

I was thinking about limousines at some point this semester…how they’re kind of a relic of the past’s view of futuristic luxury. Now, they’re just impractical and for feeling luxurious. It’s the most vain automobile someone can ride in, representing no freedom of mobility, just freedom of spending.

9.     Roads have changed the way Americans think.

“Driving requires and occasions a metaphysical merger, an intertwining of the identities of driver and car that generates a distinctive ontology in the form of a person-thing, a humanized car or alternatively, an automobilized person.” – Sociologist Jack Katz (Lutz 153-154)

Carjacked talks a lot about this, and car radio plays a huge role. Advertising causes people to make spontaneous shopping trips. American conservatives have taken over car radio. Driving also makes people angrier – keeping the concept of car-as-extension-of-self in mind, drivers take it personally when something bad happens to them on the road.

10. Media power tools.

“’The buyers are liars,’ one retired auto executive stated bluntly, repeating an industry adage. ‘They’ll tell you this is what I want, and that’s what they want…they think. But that’s not what they’re going to buy.’…The professionals who help car companies craft their products’ images understand this well.” (Lutz 40)

Watching Mad Men made it so I have to analyze every ad I see, and now I always think about shifts, persuasive techniques, made-up facts, etc., too. I liked how much time we spent on the deep dives, and I learned a lot by hearing analyses from my classmates that I didn’t catch. We have all been around cars our entire lives, and people have been trying to sell us stuff our entire lives, and I am glad I/we were all able to share our feelings on these topics, within the context of a cars & media class. I have a pretty analytical personality and these tools made it easy to analyze in a new way.

“Top 10 Key Insights About Cars, Culture and Media" Jillian Petrone

Environmental Impacts

“In response to the rising costs of gasoline, hundreds of thousands of families had bought new, smaller cars; including hybrids such as the Toyota Prius” (Lutz & Lutz)

Cars have created an even higher demand for foreign oil to maintain the amount of gas Americans consume annually, this oil comes at a high cost for more than just our wallets.  Oil that is extracted from the ground is a non-renewable resource and we surpassed the peak of its availability years ago.  The planet is suffering from the over exhaustion of extracting oil and the pollution that burning oil has created, but there is a new alternative of hybrid cars that many families are buying to reduce their consumption of oil.  Hybrid cars are a way to reduce your consumption of oil and impact on the environment, but still have the mobility of a car.  

(http://persuasion-and-influence.blogspot.com/2013/01/smart-less-polluting-car-of-world.html)

Appearance

“From the perspective of carmakers, the ideal consumer is one who is unhappy with what he has a year later.” (Lutz&Lutz)  

Americans focus too much on the way they appear to others, it has moved past the point of “keeping up with the Joneses” and we are competing with people we do not even know.  We are too focused on what people see us driving and doing, because we think that people are judging us on what we appear to be.  Cars companies feed into this thought, they want you to consume more and they provide you will new models of cars every couple of years.  Most of these new models only have slight changes, but they create a "buzz" about the new features and lure consumers to buy the newest version of their cars.  The car advertisements that we watched throughout the semester are aggressive and persuasive to make the consumer want to improve their appearance with a new car.

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Costs of Ownership

“However, it is not just lack of a car, but car ownership itself, that is helping to make the poor poorer and the rich richer.” (Lutz & Lutz,Page 101)

Car ownership is costly and only some socioeconomic classes can afford the costs that come with owning a car.  There are constant issues and time that need to be spent prepping your car to run its best performance.  In "Car Jacked," we learned about the hardships that women and minorities faced when trying to own cars.  Today there are still those challenges, people who cannot afford the costs of cars are sometimes forced to give up opportunities because of lack of transportation.  ZipCars and Vermont Carshare give people the option to only use cars when it is necessary and never have to worry about the maintenance of the car.  Living in an urban area also allows you to use other modes of transportation as well.

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Success

“Quickest to uproot themselves are the educated classes, generally to advance their corporate careers.” (Kunstler, Page 148)

Material goods are a way to show that you have created wealth to buy something expensive.  Teslas are an example of something that someone with a large amount of money and an environmentally conscious mind might purchase.   When consider yourself successful you are able to have the mobility to move and in the future as a country we should be moving into sustainable green cities and towns.  To continue to advance our culture we should change what makes you successful.  Success should be focused on how you can create new ways to get to work and around town without using a motorized vehicle and not purchasing the newest car on the market.

(http://www.scbankruptcyattorney.com/blog/bankruptcy-car-ownship-expense-supreme-court/2011/01)

Emotions

“What driving does; and we have seen it described as liberating, individuating, revivifying, equalizing.” (Seiler, page 130)

Cars are a man's best friend in America, we love and live in our cars.  Whether we are commuting long distances or driving our families around town, most trips completed in America are done in cars.  Americans feel free and happy when in their cars and become emotional attached because of the places they are able to go, when there are "warm fuzzies" in car commercials you think that if you buy that car the same thing will happen to you. When I think back to all of the times I have been in a car, I remember all of the trips I have taken with friends or family and the amount of time I have spent in a car over my lifetime. 

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Greed

“In America, with its superabundance of cheap land, simple property laws, social mobility, mania for profit” (Kunstler, Page 37)

EV1 fanatics were heartbroken when their vehicles were taken from them without a reason or even notice.  The car was a successful vehicle, but was taken off the road for the wrong reasons, every player in the scenario was to blame except for the beloved EV1.  GM revoked the cars to keep the oil companies at peace, oil companies are large stakeholders within the government and have power over the car companies.  The oil companies did not like the idea that EVs would not need their product and their greed for more money was being jeopardized.  Big companies like the oil industry are focused on creating big profits and to keep their profits high they needed cars to need gas, they have too much power over other decision makers.

(http://dearsusquehanna.blogspot.com/2011_05_01_archive.html)

Pursuit of Happiness

“This new wealth was spent on suburban houses, and on cars to get to them and appliances to put in them.  It transformed American culture.” (Kunstler, Page 229)

The American Dream is to live in a nice house with a great job and be able to afford everything you need in life.  This dream has turned into what makes people happy and car companies are able to create advertisements that entice people to buy their cars to continue to build this dream.  Our country was built upon suburban towns with people driving their cars everywhere and driving everywhere.  What if we were able to transform towns and cities into walkable communities where it was not necessary to have a car and people enjoyed creating higher social capital by interacting with people more often.  We would be able to change people's view on what makes them happy because in our current culture in America cars make people happy.

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Development 

“Eighty percent of everything ever built in America has been built in the last fifty years, and most of it is depressing, brutal, ugly, unhealthy, and spiritually degrading.” (Kunstler, Page 10)

If you reside in a suburban or rural area you are depend on your car and public transportation is not as strong as in the cities.  Kunstler focuses on creating smaller cities that are walkable, like Burlington, throughout the country to reduce the need for cars.  He refers to suburban sprawl as a future wasteland.  Our current suburban development depends car, but our highway infrastructure also was created for the usage of cars.  In the future can we create more public transportation and walkable streets in suburban areas.

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Health Impacts

“But much of the shopping we do is more impulsive and some of this is spurred by the mobile advertising- ads we see on billboards or hear on the car radio.” (Page 139) Week 6

The emissions that come from driving cars is toxic and the implications they have on our personal health are atrocious.  We are addicted to driving and the acts that come along with traveling in our cars, when we see a sign for a fast food drive-thru we cannot help ourselves from stopping.  When three quarters of all trips are made in cars we are spending more time sedintary and not being mobile with our feet.  Between the unhealthy drive-thru fast food and the lack of walking places we are becoming an unhealthy society.  When you look at other countries with great public transportation and safe bike lanes, people are less likely to drive making the population more fit and cleaner air from less pollution.

www.adweek.com

Future of Transportation

Transportation will change in the future as we change the types of transportation available.  In the past few decades we have been able to create hybrid and electric cars and who knows what the future holds.  The best future for transportation is to create walkable and safe bike lanes to create a healthy community that does not rely on any fuel to be mobile.  

http://origamibandit.blogspot.com/2009/01/another-vote-for-walkable-cities.html

Thanks for a great semester, it was an awesome class and I learned a lot about the culture and media of cars.  

Ryan Skinner Final Revelations

Autonomy

“The voluntariness of departure, the freedom implicit in the indeterminacies of mobility, the pleasure of travel free from necessity, the notion the travel signifies autonomy and is a means for demonstrating what one “really” is independent of one context or set of defining associations – remain the characteristics of the modern conception of travel.” -Eric Leed, Republic of Drivers (Page 21)

One of pleasures of driving is having autonomy on your decisions whether it be to get off the next exit and go to your destination or drive past to go get lost.  The freedom that comes with being behind the wheel of a car is one of the main reasons I believe that the automobile industry grew so quickly. I had never realized that one of the reasons that women and nonwhites had no autonomy was because they had limited access to a car, and even when they were able to operate a vehicle, they were discriminated against.

Consumerism

“Here consumption offered a direct link to republican citizenship, understood as a material stake in the stability of the current order.” Republic of Drivers (Page 35)

Around the time that the car came about, the economy had crashed and people didn’t have much to hang their hat on. Consumerism provided an avenue to normalcy in a time of great despair. It shouldn’t be surprising that what was one a treat for the rich then became a necessity for everyone because of the lowering in price. The car was an avenue to freedom and an avenue back to a sense of normalcy that was much needed at that time.

Collusion

“This money has historically gotten results: of the top 15 Senate recipients of (the car) industry largesse, not one voted for a 2005 bill raising fuel economy standards for cars.” Carjacked (Page 9)

I had never really known just how much influence that political contributions by big industry had on the political process. I had heard that there was somewhat of an influence but I did not think it applied to what seems like a common sense decision. With transportation being a huge contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, it would appear like voting in favor of raise fuel economy standards as a forgone conclusion. But sadly, money talks in our society and just because some politicians got some money for their campaigns, they choose to make an idiotic decision.

Lesbaru

“Just ask a group of American males whether they would willingly drive a Subaru wagon, widely known as a “Lesbaru” based on its reputation for being popular with gay women, to their weekly basketball game.” Carjacked (Page 57)

So, I think I missed the memo on the whole Lesbaru thing. I actually got a Subaru in May without ever hearing about his stereotype and the first time my friends saw it was when I drove to play some pick-up basketball. I don’t think knowing that Subarus were consider lesbian cars would have changed my decision because it is a perfect car for Vermont. Although there is nothing wrong with have a car that is popular with gay women, it’s silly that this stereotype would affect someone’s decision.

Expense

“In the shadows remain the many other routes to less expensive driving: more durable cars and tires, more affordable insurance, higher fuel efficiency standards, and better land use planning.” Carjacked (Page 90)

It’s sad that so much money could be saved if only things were done a little differently. If only the goal of car companies was to provide its customers with the best product technology could put together, but that is not the goal, it is to get people to buy as many cars as possible. If only communities were not built for the car. If only car companies made their cars as fuel efficient as soon as possible, not when mandated. If any of those things happened, the cost of owning a car would not be as significant.

Radical

I don’t have a quote from the books to go with this but when I was reading “Geography of Nowhere” by James Howard Kunstler, I realized that I have somewhat radical views. I think I remember Dr. Williams saying that Kunstler is regarded as a more radical thinker and when reading his book, I found that I identified with him on many things. He had some ideas about how we live our lives and how he thinks we should structure society that are very different to what we have now. I’ve known that things have to change in the future but I think there needs to be a more radical change sooner than people think.

Brains

I had heard of the whole two brain, left-right division before this class but never anything about the triune brain. The thought of having three different sections of your brain that function very differently is pretty crazy to think about. It’s especially interesting to think about how the media targets one of the three different brains based on what their goal is. I don’t think I’ll ever look at advertisements the same after learning about how ads are so targeted for different reasons.

Advertising

Speaking of advertising…it will be difficult to watch a commercial and not start deconstructing it from now on. I had never taken any kind of media course before so it was really eye-opening to see what kind of techniques companies use to try to get us to buy their products. Even while I was trying to write this assignment, a car commercial came on and I started to think about all the different production techniques present. I hated commercials and ads before this class because I think they are unnecessary but at least now I have something to do during them.

Stewardship

“Nearly eradicated in the rush to profit was the concept of stewardship, of land as a public trust: that we who are alive now are responsible for taking proper care of the landscape so that future generations can swell in it in safety and happiness.” Geography of Nowhere (Page 26)

Another thing that seems like common sense to some is so foreign for others, not only stewardship of the land but stewardship of ourselves. Before this class, I didn’t take into account the damage that cars have done to the environment and the threats is poses to our bodies. Since the invention of the car we have changed the face of the Earth and it is largely unrecognizable compared to how it looked before. Also, the risks we put ourselves in just by driving a car and the risks that the unhealthy emissions that come from cars just adds to the list of negatives that I have realized comes from vehicles.

The Future

“…because it was a foolish waste of resources in the first place, and it remains to be seen whether its components can be recycled, converted to other uses, or moved, or even whether the land beneath…can be salvaged. In the meantime, Americans are doing almost nothing to prepare for the end of the romantic dream that was the American automobile age.” Geography of Nowhere (Page 114)

The thing I keep thinking about and coming back to as being one of the main reasons we have all the problems such as dwindling resources and global warming etc. is that we were inefficient with our planning and the car facilitated  those bad decisions so well. We transformed the face of the planet so that we could drive our cars almost wherever we wanted. We designed our communities based on what would be best for the car, not what would be best for us as people. We did all of this without thinking about the future and what consequences our actions would have when it comes. The picture above is from the 50s and it’s telling that they couldn’t think about a future without cars and it shows in how they shaped our society.

Thanks everyone for a wonderful semester, especially Dr. Williams. This was by far my favorite class I have taken in college and I will take the lessons I have learned from our readings and discussions to make more informed decisions in the future.

Final Project: Where the Sidewalk Ends

Our automobility is defined by existing infrastructure...  
      
The American people have come to view the freedom of automobility as a right. While I would agree with this statement, I had never before considered that this supposed 'freedom' was still very regimented, constraining our movements to places which the government lays down infrastructure to reach. Cotten Seiler references James Clifford, who points out "the mythic nature of the figure of the "free" traveler, noting that most bourgeois, commercial, aesthetic travelers moved within highly determined circuits. These circuits have structured patterns of power, exchange, and selfhood long before the interstates..." (Seiler, loc. 1670 (kindle user)). We are confined by our roads and our cars, and provided with misplaced feelings of automobility. I think that Shel Silverstein's poem Where the Sidewalk Ends is especially relevant, as it encourages people to escape industrialism, but instead of using our cars to escape the asphalt and smoke (as we have historically) he suggests taking a walk.

We continue to sacrifice practicality for perceived individuality...

Over the past decades, technology has made amazing gains. Despite our ability to create and own practical fuel efficient vehicles, we continue to embrace the unnecessary. In many cases when purchasing a car, people buy for the maximum they might need it for, rather than a vehicle suited for typical life. An SUV for those once a year family camping trips, or a 4-wheel drive truck for that time when you have to bring a couch home from the store. I found it astounding and slightly horrifying to discover that "advances in fuel efficiency have been offset by increases in horsepower, with the result that average gas mileage has remained basically flat: the Model T got an astounding 28.5 miles per gallon, and in 2004, the national average was down to 24.7 mpg" (Lutz, loc. 176). I believe that the Model T was the epitome of practicality, it was versatile, practical, and fairly uniform. Today as we attempt to customize our automobiles and assert our status and individuality, we sacrifice practicality and efficiency, and embrace bigger, more ecologically (and economically) destructive vehicles.

We may think we're immune to advertising, but...

As Americans, we are deeply rooted in our notions of freedom and independence. These beliefs cause us to assume that we are above advertisements, and that we recognize market ploys when presented to us on the television, radio, or computer. However, advertising yields results, materializing in a number of different ways, from subconscious tendencies and associations to the brand loyalty of kids. "Corporations spend huge amounts each year on advertising in the welter of media space: on network and cable television, in newspapers and magazines, on the radio, on the Internet, on billboards, buses, and other "outdoor" advertising, and through the mail. When it comes to creating brand image, nothing does it like advertising" (Lutz, loc. 928). Brand image is extremely important, and portraying a positive brand is equally as important as showcasing the merits of the products.

In this Volkswagon ad, the car isn't mentioned once, yet at the end the viewer is left thinking what a wonderful commercial it was. I don't know about you, but I'm hooked.

We're sitting in a metal weapon moving at 70 miles per hour...

Car crashes produce terrible outcomes, as many are "unexpected, violent, and gory". Death is never easy, but in many cases illnesses or old age allow some degree of preparation, or expectation. Car crashes, on the other hand, can happen to anyone, at any moment, and on even the simplest of trips. They have the ability to extinguish multiple lives at once, regardless of one's driving ability or cautiousness. Cars are dangerous regardless of 'safety features', but Americans will not consider completely relinquishing our automobiles, despite the many associated risks. "Car crashes thieve more years from more lives than any other single cause. They are the leading cause of deaths for all Americans between the ages of 1 and 34 and have been for years. Since 1899, crashes have killed 3.4 million Americans, claiming far more victims than all U.S. wars combined" (Lutz, loc. 3,315). This staggering statistic does nothing to influence our desire to drive, as high schoolers continue to receive cars for their birthdays,  and people continue to speed down the highway while simultaneously texting and eating McNuggets. 

Check out this "deluxe, in-car office"...

Cars are making us heavy and anti-social, the vicious cycle...

Americans are becoming heavier due to prolonged car usage. Instead of walking or biking to get around, we revert to driving short distances for the sake of convenience, despite fuel costs, traffic, and parking hassles. "Roughly 40% of U.S. adults could be labeled "sedentary" because they undertook no physical activity during their leisure time, and in the past two decades, the number of trips Americans take on foot has declined 42%" (Lutz, loc. 2,965). This is an extremely relevant statistic because not only are we becoming more insularized, and losing our connection with nature and our surroundings, but we are on a slippery slope of never resuming active tendencies. We have each individually eliminated negative feedback cycles, as we grow accustomed to drive-thrus and being inside our car, rather than outdoors.  This raises the question, how do we get people OUT of their cars, and utilizing other methods of transportation when we are so comfortable inside our own vehicles?

Suburbia, no place to go, no way to get there...

Suburbia is creating a unique culture for children. The sprawl which most American children are growing up within is denying them of destinations. They become focused on automobility, and the desire to 'get out', or to start driving as soon as possible so that they can go places with their friends. Suburbia doesn't have green spaces, but it also doesn't have meeting places or destinations within walking or biking distances. It does not provide children with any outlet, and "since they had no public gathering places, teens congregated in furtive little holes--bedrooms and basements-- to smoke pot and imitate the rock and roll bands who played on the radio. Otherwise, teen life there was reduced to waiting for that transforming moment of becoming a licensed driver" (Kuntsler, loc. 288). The culture of automobility is accentuated in the suburbs, as kids with cars have the ability to go someplace new, and look forward to that perceived freedom.

Our transportation infrastructure didn't have to be like this...

The automobile and the electric streetcar were both made commercially viable at around the same time. This shocked me as much as the tale about the EV1. If these technologies had been utilized and developed correctly, they may have created a very different reality from what we know today. The streetcar and EV1 could have both represented significant improvements in transportation. General Motors seems to have single handedly been responsible for ruining any existing infrastructure designed for electric powered vehicles, and instead enforced the publics 'need' for gasoline-powered automobiles.  "A civilization completely dependent on cars, as ours is now, was not inevitable... the automobile, a private mode of transport, was heavily subsidized with tax dollars early on, while the nation's streetcar systems, a public mode of transport, had to operate as private companies, received no public funds, and were saddled with onerous regulations that made their survival economically implausible" (Kunstler, loc. 1,382). This demonstration of our capitalistic society makes me nervous for our future. I can only hope that the paradigm will change so dramatically that car companies will be forced to produce efficient vehicles, and to invest in other modes of transportation. 

We may be losing our connection to place...

My childhood and my background have given me a profound sense of place. Having a connection to the biological community that surrounds you is natural, and an inherent part of human nature. I formed these connections as a child, when I was roaming around the back fields and woods, as in independent being long before I was able to drive. Today, "our obsession with mobility, the urge to move on every few years, stands at odds with the wish to endure in a beloved place, and no place can be worthy of that kind of deep love if we are willing to abandon it on short notice for a few extra dollars. Rather, we choose to live in Noplace, and our dwellings show it" (Kunstler, loc. 2,796). This seems to capture the lack of effort and design that we put into our mass-produced homes, that serve as temporary stops for millions of Americans as the plan to move on. Like in suburbia, people in these temporary homes are looking for the next move, or for an escape route. 

Bigger is better...

'Bigger is better' could be used as a sort of slogan for American consumerism. What we don't realize, however, are the consequences of our lifestyles and living arrangements, which we design to reflect the maximum level of our income. "Living in places where nothing is connected properly, we have forgotten that connections are important. To a certain degree, we have forgotten how to think. Now that we have built the sprawling system of far-flung houses, offices, and discount marts connected by freeways, we can't afford to live in it" (Kunstler, loc. 3,928). We don't think about our consumption, we mindlessly drive to food and shopping chains where we spend money on products not build to last, which we'll later throw in a dumpster never to see again. We perceive our actions as having no direct consequences, and continue to consume at our maximum budgets, saving repercussions for later. Automobiles partially enable this trend in consumerism.

But he's a member of the family....

It's the end of the semester, and we've spent weeks learning about car culture in the United States, and how it interconnects with our economic and social needs. While my eyes were certainly opened about the negative associations of automobility, it's a hard to call my own habits into question. I do own a car. I don't drive a lot, but I definitely fall into the category of folks who are automobile-dependent. I go to school four and a half hours away from my family, and I drive home on breaks. My town in Connecticut had a walk score of 3. This class has forced me to consider my own actions, and worse, forced me to question whether I plan on changing them. "The adjustment may be painful for a nation that views car ownership as the essence of individual liberty. But the future will require us to make this adjustment" (Kunstler, loc. 3,962). So, now the question stands; how and when will this change take place? And will you find yourself at the front, or back of it?

A little clip from my high school yearbook... we had a section where everybody posed with their cars... sigh.