Car- independence is not the same as Car-"free"
I love having a car. When I need a car. It can be incredibly liberating to drive where I need to go at the exact moment I have to leave. If labor starts far quicker than I anticipated, I appreciate the immediacy of the motor vehicle. Spontaneity, freedom, and ease are all gifts the car grants in modern life. A convenient and a powerful tool.
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Cars have their Place
As I said before, cars are wonderful when used in a balanced manner. Cars help transport food and goods all over the U.S. Cars allow families to recreate in highly specific spaces on a very customizable time table. They help with self reliance if public transportation is still unreliable or is down. They give police and emergency vehicles to get where they need to as quickly as possible. They are excellent tools for those who need to get places when they are disabled, sick, or exhausted. They make it possible to get to areas that are less developed and distant. Let's use cars to their fullest capacity without infringing upon every aspect of our lives.
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When something is convenient and helpful, it's a blessing. When its convenient, and destructive, it's now a vice.
The problem is, we've gone too far. . This is where our car infrastructure has lead us and it has much destruction ahead of itself. We have zero spaces in Utah in which people are living normal lives without a car. We are drowning in the vice of car infrastructure, completely dependent on the car to function, in a multiplicity of ways. I want the car to become a blessing again, not a burden.
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Helping Utah become car-independent is not the same thing as becoming car-less or car-free. Utah is currently car-dependent meaning, unless you are a bike fanatic, enjoy inconveniencing people for rides, and are okay with tripled and arduous commute times, you can't function in Utah without a car. Only those who are sacrificially passionate about public transportation, or are incredibly poor, find menial ways to exist in the state.
Car independence does not mean you are suddenly not allowed to take your car to the grocery store. Or that you will be penalized if you "drive too much.". It means that individuals can live functioning, happy, and even convenient lives without the heavy burden of the car if they wish. Car-dependence slowly turns into car-infestation and hurts everyone. The wealthy elite seem to escape the most trouble caused from it, but even they suffer.
How Car Independence Over Car Dependence Helps Everyone.
Villages
We have lost our villages. We have lost our Communities. R1 zoning(suburbs) created to mitigate car traffic in favor of car infrastructure is slowly killing us. Bell's "provincial town" is a good example. Neighborhoods that used to be lively, filled with families, children, bakers, salons, grocers, butchers, bankers, studios, and schools are now isolated prisons. People used to be able to contribute to their immediate communities directly with livestock, food and services. This is no longer the case as we rely more and more on franchises with political motivation. With ever growing technology, severe neighborhood aesthetic laws and crashing social structures, the world is snowballing so quickly, we barely have time to blink. We must must change. In fact, with growing A.I. technology, despite its many future blessings, it is likely going to exacerbate the current isolation social media has burden with us with. The world is shifting quickly, and we can either do nothing and let it crumble us into further suffering, affecting our children the most, or we can make a right turn and fix our broken system.
(Well designed cities, towns, villages last for centuries with continual prosperity, even during war or economic downturn.)
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Air Pollution
When people live in well designed cities, with proper infrastructure, where people feel they don't need to buy a car to function, people drive less, or not at all. This puts less cars on the road. We need less cars on the road. With more convenient and speedy alternative transportation, people don't need to use the road, and if the infrastructure is built well enough, people prefer public transit. We can see this in places like Switzerland where the wealthy prefer public transit. For those terrified about putting more public transportation in place, and better designed cities, what solution do you have to clean up our air? This is a crisis that must be handled, and if the cars are the leading problem for our toxic air, some compromise must be met. This cannot go unanswered. It's spiraling health problems affect us all.
(Smog over Utah Valley, Salt Lake City)
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Traffic
Not only do better designed cities, less sprawled spaces, and roads designed for pedestrians make traffic faster, there's less of it. I talk about this in another entry, but despite our attempts to speed up cars, our current infrastructure makes traffic slow in dense areas. The American "stroad" incessantly slows down the driver, and makes pedestrian commutes deadly. Our communities should be designed around roads and streets, not stroads. Because well designed cities promote pedestrian communities, less people are on the road. Roads move cars quickly as possible with little to no intrusion. Streets protect pedestrians, while also being faster than stroads, as you are still likely to be moving at a continual slow speed, rather than fast stop and go. Wouldn't it be nice if our spaces were so functional, prosperous, and had enough accessible public transit, people preferred to not drive their car?(Unless necessary). We could eliminate rush hour traffic entirely. Or when your favorite football team comes into town, thousands of people prefer taking the train over the car? Making your commute home a half an hour, not three?
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Freedom
Again, this isn't about limiting freedom. This is about giving more freedom than our car infrastructure currently provides. Just because I'm trying to rebuild Utah to be so functional people prefer public transit, does not mean I'm negating the use of cars. Cars are needed, and they have a purpose. It's about choice. Right now, people don't have a choice. They must drive.
Citations
(1)https://www.minnesotamonthly.com/travel-recreation/why-i-enjoy-driving-covid-19/
(2)https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2023/03/ann-arbor-fire-department-rolls-out-its-first-ambulance.html
(3)https://tomorrow.city/a/what-is-the-evolution-use-car-city
(4)https://www.amazon.com/Britains-Hidden-Villages/dp/B08SMQ3FDJ
(5)https://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/24/us/utah-a-nature-lovers-haven-is-plagued-by-dirty-air.html
(6)https://tomorrow.city/a/what-is-the-evolution-use-car-city
