Automobiles

I believe the car culture is responsible for many of the health ills Americans face. Obesity, joint degradations, osteoporosis and, of course, respiratory diseases can all be associated with the use of cars instead of feet and/or pedals. The automobile industry intentionally pressured governments to tear up a massive public transportation system in the United States in the 1950s. Every city in the U.S. had an intricate network of street trolleys, running on electricity, not petroleum as the buses do which replaced them.

When I was very young, my mother and grandmother took me to a Russian picnic/festival in a state reservation just north of Boston. The whole trip of 15 miles was done on public transport. The final leg of the journey to the park was on an electric trolley which rumbled along through deep woods of the reservation on its way to its terminus in a suburban village. When I now walk in that park, which I must access in a car, I make certain to walk on the old rail bed of the trolley tracks. The rotted ties still stick up along the path in places. They are a symbol of America's assassinated public transportation network.

In recent months, Rightist state governors have proudly refused Federal public transportation funds for light rail and high-speed rail. How idiotic is this? What does this say about their attitude toward the public health and safety of their constituents?

To more affluent suburbanites, the car has morphed into a symbol of adulthood and freedom. Rather than hunting predators in the bush, pampered adolescents are given car keys by doting parents. Local politicians fight commuter rail development from a position of covert xenophobia. Rail means that those without cars, the less 'desirable' in the mind of the suburbanite, may be able to access their communities for housing.

Electrifying cars is not the only answer. Getting people out of their cocoons into the public space via public transportation is part of the answer to a society sharply divided along socioeconomic lines. Making cities accessible, quieter and environmentally cleaner is easy with adequate public transportation and traffic-free zones. Making hubs of smaller cities and extending public transportation networks within their metro areas can diminish urban sprawl. Concentrating housing with services around transportation stops is a proven way of developing more efficient and environmentally friendly housing for a growing human population.

The automobile's curse is not only petroleum dependence. It is the automobile culture itself. It is an antisocial culture in its very nature. Its health effects are overwhelmingly negative. As a humanist who takes responsibility for his environment seriously, I give my full support to expanded and improved public transportation. My enthusiasm for it is second only to my enthusiasm for simply walking to where I need to go.