TRANSPORT IMPACTS

I am sitting here trying to understand the phenomenon of the automobile. How has this machine come to dominate everything else? To spread to every corner of the globe and proliferate with exponential growth until there is no room left. Then it struck me…. They are not so different from us. We are as inefficient, dominant and proliferating as they are. This report looks at some cute comparisons between cars and people.

To start with, let’s look at the name – automobile – it implies a certain self-sustaining property. As we are becoming all too aware of with peak oil, the huge costs of roads and car parks and global warning: this is far from reality! Same goes with people – we have created a society where we don’t see our direct impacts on the world and so we start to feel slightly autonomous. This illusion is scary as we create an unwarranted security and keep living and driving detached from our surroundings.

When we look at individual cars they seem rather harmless and a pretty useful tool for getting around. Most people also seem pretty harmless, good natured and can occasionally be useful and/or intelligent. However, when we start having collections of these creatures we soon run into all sorts of problems.

What keeps cars going strong when all research is pointing to there inefficiency? It is the collectivity of people, just as cars keep us going. People and cars have become an inseparable pair – a beautiful symbiotic relationship that is thriving. We drive cars and cars drive us. There is one little problem – this pair has become a big parasite for all other modes of transport, living things, non-living things and space itself…

Is it a co-incidence that the obesity epidemic and flourish in the popularity of the fat SUV are both occurring simultaneously? Look at the countries where this phenomenon is happening – Australia, America and Canada – the fattest people in the world driving the fattest cars. Meanwhile over in Europe they are staying slim in the little minis.

Now an interesting dilemma has come into play. Who are we prepared to feed first, people or their cars? With the introduction of biofuels, finally cars and the people who drive cars are having to compete against each other (however, the sad fact is, that it’s the people in developing countries with no car access that are losing out to the car for food).

While all these points are quaint and ironic, the situation is quite deep and serious. The psychological attachment of the drive to the vehicle is strong.

“The halo effect of travel by car is such that the properties of the car are seen to be transferred to the traveler. Thus, whilst traveling by car, the traveler is seen, by others and by their self, to embody the features [of the car]” (Kenyon and Lyons 2003).

If we are to tackle the overuse of cars in our society, we are not only going to have to improve the alternatives but we are going to have to sever this bond and convince people that they are not the car they drive!

Kenyon, S. and G. Lyons (2003). “The value of integrated multimodal traveller information and its potential contribution to modal change.” Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour 6(1): 1-21.