I have often said that a generalization means nothing unless it is backed up by specifics. In some sense we all know that cars, automobiles, drive everything. Everything is centered around cars -- and yet when I try to explain what I mean by "everything is centered around cars" my mind goes blank. What do I mean -- and then I go back to my notebook and see what made me come up with this generalization.
I am on a great many committees and I attend many committee meetings. I was on a committee that studied the future growth of Northwestern Michigan College, and as the number of meetings accumulated I realized we had spent a great many meetings talking about car roads. The placement of all buildings depended on car access to buildings. We weren't thinking about education -- the needs of students -- how to get students around campus. Mostly it was about how to get the student there by car and how to get the student home by car.
Long ago I was one of the many people creating a Master Plan for the City of Traverse City. Ninety per cent of what we talked about was transportation -- cars, which roads should be widened. We didn't discuss making the city liveable for people. We discussed making the city liveable for cars.
Grand Traverse Commons -- better known to all of us as the State Hospital Grounds -- conducted several meetings recently talking about Munson Medical center access to it, and a new power plant and access to the power plant. Access? Car access, parking lots.
I went to a meeting of neighborhood groups in Traverse City -- and guess what was discussed at the meeting -- virtually the only thing discussed at the meeting was cars. What streets in our neighborhood are being widened to accommodate cars. What streets should not be....
I went to a meeting whose only purpose was to discuss the bypass being proposed south of town.
Cars dominate our lives. We drive 'em, we talk about 'em, we build roads for 'em. We can't plan anything without first thinking of how cars will get there, park there, leave there.
I drive a car. I know cars are an integral part of life in America--but this is sickening. Cars aren't a part of our life -- catering to cars is becoming all of our life. Buying them, caring for them, holding thousands of meetings to talk about them. I'm almost at the point when I want out.
I read essays I wrote twenty years ago and they all say what I am saying now. The problem is the car. Too much of our life revolves around cars. We must create alternative ways to get from here to there. Cars are soon going to be as dead as dinosaurs; underground oil reserves will last perhaps another 30 years.The car will soon be gone and we are not planning for its replacement. I'm sick of planning for cars. It's time to plan for humans.
Copyright © 2004 Henry Morgenstein