|  danzbar | May 15, 1:09pm | You gotta have serious nerve to pull this kind of thing off.
It's bike week in Los Angeles, the city that needs it most. I have gone, to date, seven years without a car in LA. Nothing too special in one sense since I moved here when I was sixteen, except, well, two reasons really. First, I was given a car when I was sixteen which I didn't take mainly because the woman who gave it to me was my mom's un-hot, 45-year-old friend who wanted to have sex with me. (I believe the charming term she used was "initiate." I sold the car with my mom's help, and sent the nice woman the money.) Reason number two: I'm lucky enough to say that I could have afforded a car from age 18.
I'm not trying to show I'm some kind of saint. I'm an asshole sometimes just like everyone else. The truth is, buying a car is a shitty decision unless you really need it. I haven't bought one, because I don't want one. I have a few reasons.
Pollution. I can't quote statistics as to how disgusting Los Angeles air is, but it's disgusting. Vomitously so. People bitching about not believing in global warming can STFU on the car issue. They're still disgusting. They're still giving children asthma. They're still ugly, still creating smog that obscures my view of the mountains.
Safety. Driving is the least safe of common modes of transport. Flying, while dirtier, is safer. Biking, walking, riding buses and trains--are all much safer in addition to being cleaner.
This safety aspect was burned into my memory from a young age. The house I grew up in was located in Brooklyn just next to a street corner that ought to have had a stoplight on it. Living in a place like that, I became very used to the car alarms. They didn't wake me up anymore, but the unforgettable sound of metal and glass colliding at forty miles an hour--the skid of the brakes, the dreadful moment of anticipation, the crunch of impact--awoke me on occasion.
Years later, I ended up working in an office on a similar street corner in LA. Not quite as frequent, but then I was only there for seven or eight hours a day so two or three crashes a year was enough to remind me of home. Especially since the only thing between me and the cars was a thin layer of glass, a five-foot sidewalk, and a desk.
Just to provide a quick reference, according to car-accidents.com: "There were nearly 6,420,000 auto accidents in the United States in 2005. The financial cost of these crashes was more than 230 Billion dollars. 2.9 million people were injured and 42,636 people killed. About 115 people die every day in vehicle crashes in the United States -- one death every 13 minutes."
Which brings me to the third issue: Affordablity. Though I can afford a car now, the minute I drive one off the lot it will only lose value. Christian Balish, author of How To Live Well Without A Car, outlined in detail just how much cars really cost. He arrived at a figure of $800 per month. That's (800 x 12...) $9600 per year. The average US household carries $8000 in credit card debt. "43% of American households spend more than they earn." And, in the US, cars actually outnumber people.
So, cars...appear to be a problem. In other news, two plus two still equals four.
I consider it particularly unfortunate that Los Angeles was built the way it was. Instead of having a dense urban center from which the population becomes slightly less dense the further away one travels from it, it has a bunch of small interconnected cities. The land mass stretches so far that just about nobody casually hails a cab. (They wouldn't stop, anyway--I've tried. And the cost for a cab ride from South Bay to Pasadena is in excess of $80.) But, even so, it is quite possible to live without a car in LA. It isn't convenient, but it isn't impossible.
I carpool to the supermarket with a friend/neighbor these days, but we used to just walk. I'd take a backpack usually, but sometimes I'd take a luggage bag with wheels. It may sound funny, but it really works. I wrote a bit about it here.
I got myself a license a couple years back just in case. I know where I'd go to rent a car. And Zipcar isn't that expensive. I'll probably use their service some time in the next few years if I'm still living here. But I have to say, the inconvenience of this city does not leave me yearning to spend the rest of my life here. It's more important to me to live without a car than to live where it's warm and "hip."
I see enough to feel it isn't for me, at least not with current technology. What I don't understand is how others don't see it as I do. I don't really think it's that hard. It's just a matter of sacrificing impulsiveness in favor of planning ahead, of walking a few miles a day, of utilizing the public transportation system the way it was meant to be utilized. It's not for everyone--especially not families with young children--but if you think about it, it's very practical for one person as long as that person can get to work and back. It doesn't take all that much nerve to carry out. It's NOT like riding a bike on the freeway. Now that takes nerve.
(I didn't mean to write so much. I got kinda carried away there. I may repost this on my SU page.) |
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I Hate Cars → Discussion