All the ways cars harm the world

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We are big fans of electric vehicles and have written a lot about them Article about why we love them in our series, Decarbonize your life. But cars, even electric ones, are harmful to people and communities. Psychologist Carl Jung said that everything has a 'shadow' or dark side, and in this article we explore the great shadow of the ubiquitous car to discuss upcoming articles on public transportation, trains, and active transportation.

This shadow is also called car damage, a term that characterizes the immense toll that cars have on people and our planet. Cars have been emptying our cities and hurting our children (they are). the #1 killer worldwide), has warmed our planet, polluted our lungs and robbed us blind (with the average car costing more than $600,000 over its lifetime and society paying half that cost). In many ways, their “convenience” is ultimately an illusion, as communities built around cars force people to travel further and spend more of their lives in cars. Despite all this, most of us remain heavily dependent on cars, because cars are so intertwined with our lives that we cannot see the damage from them, let alone break free.

Cars harm communities

American cities and towns were once thriving, vibrant places. In these golden days before the car, people lived in dense communities that were walkable and accessible by public transportation; even suburbs grew along tram lines. The average density of the major cities was 7,500 people per square kilometer in 1950.

After World War II, home ownership policies encouraged sprawl, entrenched racism led people to flee cities as African Americans moved north during the Great Migration, and the interstate highway system became the nation's largest infrastructure project . As a result, Americans were incentivized and started buying a lot of cars. We now have the the second highest percentage of car ownership (behind Monaco) in the world, 4 times the global average. Cities vast and depopulated, and now only 12 of the fifty largest American cities have the same average density as American cities in the 1950s.

Most people no longer walk to meet their daily needs, missing out on connection with their neighbors and exercise. Instead, we spend an average hour per day the driving. Interestingly, the average travel time of 30 minutes have not changed, which means that the car does not shorten our travel time, but only increases the distance we travel.

Cars cost a lot of money

According to AAAthe average annual cost of car ownership is $12,182, that is 16% of the median household income in the US. This is the second largest household expenses after housing.

Compare that to households of all incomes who do not own a car, who only have a car Spend 5% of their income on transport. Incredibly, car owners with the lowest incomes (right table below) spend almost half of their income on transportation.

Our family spends about $5,300 annually on our car ($1,900 in insurance, $300 in gas, $500 in repairs, $2,600 in depreciation). Limiting ourselves to just one car and driving electric saves a lot of money, but the costs are still significant.

And cars don't just cost individuals a lot of money, they also cost society boatloads. We subsidize car use at staggering levels with spending on road maintenance, highway construction, ambulance services for car accidents and 'free' parking, which takes up valuable real estate and ultimately creates housing and consumer goods. more expensive (each parking space costs $1,750 to build and $400 per year to maintain). Like a Shame article on the subject says: “Even if you don't own a car and never drive, you pay for other people's cars – both in rent and in health, social and environmental costs.” A Ecological economics A report shows that a small car in Germany costs $641,000 over its lifetime and that society subsidizes about 41% of that cost.

Cars damage our climate

Vehicles are responsible for 28% of CO2 emissions, the largest share of any sector. according to the EPA. New York City, with its lowest rates of car ownership and highest use of transit in the US also has the lowest CO2 emissions, as New Yorkers produce ⅓ greenhouse gas emissions like other Americans.

Of course, electric vehicles help reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but New York City shows that one of the fastest ways to reduce your air pollution is to live somewhere where you are less dependent on the car. Furthermore, electric vehicles do not avoid pollution from 'material wear', which are the microplastics and metals emitted by cars while driving and which are also harmful to our environment.

Cars are harmful to our health

Vehicle use correlates “in the Range of 99 percent” to the obesity rates, as well as the related ones urban sprawl. A analysis Many studies show that “reducing driving could bring significant health benefits to the population.”

Transport also causes a lot of local air pollution, accounting for approx 45% of US NOx emissions. NOx injury the human respiratory system and is associated with “premature death, reduced lung function growth in children and emergency room visits due to asthma.”

Car accidents also pose a significant health and safety risk that most of us don't think too much about. They are the main cause of death for children and young people (5-29 years) According to the CDC and the eighth leading cause of death worldwide for all age groups. A recent report notes that we have become so accustomed to this form of car violence that 'it is socially constructed as normal, coincidental or inevitable'. The total number of deaths caused by cars now equals it deaths from World War II. Joe, like many of us, has firsthand experience with this: his sister died in a car accident when she was only 22.

Cars harm our planet, our bodies, our communities and our bank accounts. They cast a huge shadow that most of us take for granted because we remain heavily dependent on them. How can we reduce our car dependency and improve our lives and communities? In our next post, we'll dive into the first obvious tool to fight back against the destructive hegemony of the car: smelly, uncomfortable, and glorious public transportation.

This article is part of a series called Decarbonize your life. With modest steps and reasonable costs, our family has dramatically reduced emissions and is capturing what's left through a small reforestation project. It makes our lives better. If we can do it, you can too.