“More recent commentators have put forth, implicitly or
explicitly, a corollary claim that the Interstate Highway System made
automobility a more or less mandatory practice: the apparatus of automobility
that surrounds us and within which we conduct our daily lives deters us from
imagining and especially undertaking other forms of association” (Seiler, 145).
When the Interstate Highway System was approved, the
government made the decision to have the car as the main mode of transportation
for its citizens. Rather than develop an
equally large network of train tracks that could be utilized to their full
potential without personal cars. The
American ideal of automobility existed before the Interstate system with
expansion towards the west; the Interstate highway system solidified that
ideal.
“As anthropologists like to say, humans are to culture as
fish are to water. That is, culture is
what we swim in, but we are the last creatures to truly understand it because
it is everywhere” (Lutz, 11).
It’s difficult to notice just how dependent we are all on
our cars unless it is explicitly pointed out.
We’re lucky enough to live in Burlington, where the effects of car
culture are a bit less obvious, but since starting this course I now notice the
massive amount of cars that are passing by all the time. It is especially noticeable when you travel
near a city such as New York or Boston, where the roadways can’t begin to
contain the number of cars traveling during rush hour.
“During the long Cold War, freedom was held up as the key
difference between the United States and the Soviet Union. The daily repetition of this message
implicitly linked the car even more firmly than it had been to American
national identity” (Lutz, 17).
I found it really interesting to connect America’s car
culture with the Cold War. The struggle
was a conflict between the world’s two greatest superpowers of the time, and
the use of automobility as a symbol of the American way of life seems so
blatant after reading Lutz’s book.
America was enemies against the Soviets because of the belief in
democracy as the ideal government, the ability of its citizens to travel freely
and without any obstacles was the picture perfect representation of that.
“The car is not only a major component of household
spending, but its costs are often very unpredictable, giving families a sudden
and painful financial kick in the shins.
Surveys show that one in three Americans in the past year had
“unexpected expenses that created financial trouble,” or “seriously set them
back” and, of those, fully one quarter was car-related” (Lutz, 81).
Much of Lutz’s book discusses how the average person does
not take into account all of the costs that their car will demand. Many only consider the price of the car and
fuel costs, often forgetting about interest, insurance, maintenance, depreciation
(especially if bought new), and repair from accidents. I’m reminded of Sam’s deep dive video about
the dad and son buying the Volkswagen from the old woman, where the dad makes
the decision to buy the car after a few tests that tell him nothing about its
state. As the above quote shows, a
quarter of Americans in financial trouble are in their situation because their
car costs them more than they anticipated.
“Progress always has a price, we tell ourselves, and some
might argue that the suffering of people with cancer, lung disease, and asthma
is a sad but inevitable cost of our beloved cars, our freedom, and our modern
world itself” (Lutz, 174).
It’s unfortunate how many people believe that poor health is
an acceptable consequence for modern progress.
This is, of course, not an inevitable outcome that cannot be avoided; we
just need to change how we think about our cars. The technology already exists for us to have
zero-emission vehicles (Tesla), we just need to adapt as a culture to make
these vehicles the norm rather than their internal-combustion counterparts.
“…safety innovations have caused people to drive less
safely: straighter roads, wider lanes, partnered with a “smooth ride” and
antilock brakes encourage people to drive faster and leave a shorter distance
between themselves and the car in front” (Lutz, 180).
It seems counterintuitive, but
the increased safety of cars and roadways has led to more dangerous driving by
Americans. A clear example is shown
every time it snows heavily in Vermont; if you drive on the highway during a
snowfall you’ll see multiple cars in ditches on the side of the road because
the driver was being careless. Even
though cars get safer, the number of deaths remains roughly the same because
people think, for instance, that if they have snow tires they are invincible in
the snow.
“Typically, because the 112 Americans and 3,300 people
worldwide who were killed by cars yesterday, or the 112 the day before that,
didn’t die together, all at once, they didn’t make news” (Lutz, 181).
Americans often think of their car as a relatively safe
place to be while also being terrified of flying. One of the main reasons for this is that the
national media reports almost every plane crash in the country, while at the
same time ignoring the hundreds of fatal car crashes that occur each and every
day. If all of these deaths were
reported in the same manner that airline disasters are, maybe people would see
that there are other transportation options out there besides their car.
http://journalistsresource.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/transit-risk-average-annual-fatalities.jpg
“Eighty percent of everything ever built in America has been
built in the last fifty years” (Kunstler, Ch. 1).
I thought that this was an
astounding fact, especially when you consider that it means eighty percent of
everything built in the country has occurred during the era of the car. Fifty years ago the car was already the main
form of transportation for most Americans, meaning that only twenty percent of
America’s infrastructure is from a time where trains and streetcars were as
equally accessible as cars for most people.
It comes as no surprise that we are such a car-dependent culture when
you realize that it was the focus throughout nearly the entire country’s
construction.
“The devices in civic design that had adorned Europe –
derived chiefly from the notion that the space between buildings was as
important as the buildings themselves – did not jibe with American property-ownership
traditions, which put little value in the public realm” (Kunstler, Ch. 4).
Americans pride themselves in
what they are able to achieve as an individual, often disregarding what they
can accomplish as a community. The
thought of using public land for collective purposes is lost on most Americans,
as most would rather go straight to their private homes after work. As Professor Watts stated in class, for every
ten minutes that an American spends in their daily commute, they are 10% less likely
to contribute to their community. In
many cities built before the car was invented, public squares dominate the
center of the city; these public squares are noticeably absent in many American
cities, where empty lots are regarded as wastelands.
“You might say the overall consequence is that we have lost
our sense of consequence. Living in
places where nothing is connected properly, we have forgotten that connections
are important” (Kunstler, Ch. 13).
The largest problem with American car culture is that the
vast majority of people don’t know the consequences of their daily driving
habits. Using a car to get everywhere
instead of exploiting other options has environmental effects that we are all
well versed in, most Americans are unaware of what happens to the Earth when
you pump large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere. Electric vehicles, bicycles, walking, etc.
are all better options than driving a car, and there usually is a viable
alternative that wouldn’t add time to a daily commute. If Americans were aware of the consequences of
their internal combustion engines, they would probably use them only when
necessary.
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