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Global Warning - Oct 31, 2004 - Printable Version
- My Life as Roadkill
by Robin Buckallew
I have recently had some bad news. My pet cat died. And lest you all get the wrong idea, I did not kill her by parachuting her into Borneo. She died in the way that many of our pets go - being hit by a car. And since that time, I have been giving the subject of cars and cats a great deal of thought. It doesn't require too much thought to realize that our cats - as well as our dogs, our armadillos, our bunnies, our roadrunners, and even our children - cannot peacefully coexist with cars. Have you ever seen a live armadillo? The carnage occurring on our roads every day is immense. And it leads me to wonder - where is the outrage? Why do we tolerate this peacefully? Facts. The lives claimed on American roads amounts to the equivalent of a World Trade Center attack every three days. Every three days, American cars take as many American lives as were taken in what has been called the worst attack on American soil in history. Where is the war on automobiles? No, we are fighting a war to guarantee that this carnage can continue. We are fighting in the Middle East to support our right to continue to kill - cheaply. You want weapons of mass destruction? Look in your garage. To paraphrase Pogo, "We have seen the terrorist, and he is us".
We are all roadkill. We are living, breathing, walking, talking roadkill. So much of our lives, so much of ourselves has been sacrificed to the automobile that we can no longer consider ourselves fully free and functional human beings. We bow down and genuflect to the almighty automobile (most of us not literally, but figuratively). Now it is time to reflect on the impact that these steel monsters have on our lives and our communities. I won't dwell on the positive impacts. You know those. You have been nurtured on those. These data have been your constant companions your entire life. No one doubts the efficacy of automobile travel. If you should ever find yourself doubting that a car is a wonderful thing, all you have to do is turn on the television, and Ford, Chevy or Jeep will be sure to have a commercial there, just waiting to refresh your spirit. You will believe it. It seems to make so much sense. The freedom of the open road. The rapid movement from point A to point B. Oh, sometimes you might have a twinge when you think about environmental impacts, but you comfort yourself by reflecting that the boost to our "lifestyle" outweighs any environmental costs. Of course it does.
So, how much do we sacrifice to our cars, anyway? To arrive at a dollar amount, you simply figure how much gas you put in your car per week, and then multiply it times 52, right? Of course. Then, you have to add the monthly car payment. The insurance premium. Oil changes, wiper blades, tires. This should be an easy calculation. I calculate approximately $3700 a year for my usage. Doesn't sound too bad, overall. But consider this: my car was a low dollar model bought four years ago, I get approximately 30 MPG, and put only about 100 miles a week on my car. I only get about two oil changes a year because of my low mileage, and I don't have to replace my tires very often. I also have a totally wreck-free insurance record, with no teenagers driving, and have discounts on my insurance for having my house and car with the same company. And it still averages out to over $300 a month for my car. Without figuring in any additional maintenance that might be needed as things begin to go wrong. It has been calculated that the average North American spends about 18.5% of their yearly income on their car. That's two and a half-months that you work just to support your car. And that is only the direct cost you pay. Are you a taxpayer? Probably. If you are, you are paying considerably more than you realize just to support your car habit.
Many of us complain every time we fill our tank about the cost of gasoline. If you live in America, this is highly unrealistic, considering what people in other countries pay at the tank. Of course, as a taxpayer, you are paying enormous costs for the gas you pump. It's just that you don't realize the full cost of your driving, because it is hidden in the taxes that you pay every year. Federal tax subsidies that directly benefit the oil companies run to at least $1.9 trillion a year. State subsidies in the form of lowered tax rates for gasoline suppliers amount to around 5 billion a year. Anywhere from $36 to 112 billion a year is spent on road construction, maintenance and other infrastructure. Then, you add in the $55-100 billion a year the Department of Defense spends to protect our oil supplies in the oil producing countries, and you have a whopping tax bill. The cost of putting you and me behind the wheel has become staggering.
Then, consider the other costs that are never calculated in the cost of driving. What are the environmental costs? The social costs of disruption to our communities? The health costs? It is a well-documented fact that the gasoline engine is a large contributor to global air pollution. Asthma rates are higher in areas with denser automobile populations. Other costs related to decreased agricultural production, as more and more arable land is turned into highways. Increased water pollution is attributable at least in part (a large part) to runoff from highways. Just think, your drinking water has been inoculated with the oil, antifreeze, and rubber debris that are deposited daily on our national highways. Not to mention the number of ditches around the country that are filled with rusting auto parts (or even sometimes entire cars) that have been improperly discarded. Thousands are killed on the roads each year, elevating the costs of insurance sky-high. Hundreds of thousands are maimed, increasing the costs of insurance still more. This doesn't even take into account the grief and suffering that accompanies each individual loss. And, of course, roadkill. There are few reliable figures for how many animals become roadkill every day. I don't really need any figures here. We have all seen the dead animals. We are all intimately familiar with the carnage. Many of us have suffered the loss of personal animal friends to the king of the highway, the automobile. The estimates that have been done by dedicated citizens have come up with an estimate of approximately 100 million animals killed on American highways each day (not even counting insects). These animals run the gamut from ordinary deer to household pets to endangered species, such as black bears. This is only counting those actually hit by the cars. The death toll rises higher when we consider the loss of habitat from paving roads, the loss of food and shelter from cutting down trees, and the poisoning of the water supplies the animals depend on. The costs of keeping you and me behind the wheel become even higher.
What sort of alternatives do we have, though? How can we survive in a global economy without our automobiles? Strangely enough, the answer to the future might lie in the past. Not the deep, dark past. The recent past. In the early 20th century, cars were not common on the roads. In fact, they were scoffed at and scorned by most of the truly enlightened people. Cars at that time would not travel very fast, and spewed black smoke everywhere. The smell was horrible, and most people considered cars a blight on the countryside. The American people had to be conned and coerced into accepting the internal combustion engine. Who would do such a thing? Well, that would be the industry that manufactured the internal combustion engine. At one time, cities were laid out to be easily crossed by foot or by bicycle. Where longer trips were needed, trolleys and trains were available. In order to ensure a steady supply of customers for their infernal machines, the automakers had to combat more popular forms of transportation. The other forms, it might be noted, had the advantage of being less expensive and more efficient. This did not daunt the auto companies. They simply bought up the trolley lines.and shut them down. The railroads had their own share of problems at the time, mostly brought on by unregulated railroads run by "robber barons". The rest is history. Over time, the very existence of the automobile became a self-perpetuating circle, as the automobile enabled people to move further and further out of the city, creating the suburbs, which just created the need for more automobiles and more roads. Now, when I mention mass transit, I get jeered at, hooted at, or even called Communist. We NEED our cars, I am told. Mass transit is expensive, and requires subsidies, I am told. I don't want my life in someone else's hands. I find this last about the most ridiculous argument of all. After all, I would rather have my life in the hands of a trained professional who goes through regular drug and alcohol testing then in the hands of the amateur in the Hummer beside me who is talking on his cell phone and drinking a Coke while he drives. Actually, when all is said and done, I would rather have my life in the hands of a trained professional than in my own control, especially when I have been working a long day and I am tired.
As for the other excuses, let's take a look. We have already considered the cost of transportation. And I hope I have made the point adequately that the federal government heavily subsidizes our "privately owned" automobiles. In addition, the airplanes that many of us see as acceptable forms of mass transportation are heavily subsidized. And if you aren't aware of that, you must have been hibernating for at least the last three years. Just to do a quick comparison of government subsidies. In 2003, subsidies to Amtrak amounted to $1.04 billion. Wow! A whopping sum. But wait: subsidies to the airlines amounted to $15.9 billion. Oh, my! Maybe we should be driving our cars to save everybody money? For the answer to that, see above. And the end user cost to the consumer for train travel is 25 cents per mile, compared to 36 cents per mile for automobiles. There is little or no difference in travel time for trains vs. cars (unless the car hits a major traffic jam, leaving you stalled out while the train chugs its merry way along on its own personal track). And one final comparison: the pollution from the various means of transport is much lower with the train than any other form of transport. Amtrak produces about three ounces of pollution per passenger mile, a private automobile 9.57 ounces. And the plane, which is cheaper in end user cost to the consumer (19 cents per mile) generates a whopping 17.45 ounces of pollution per passenger mile. No wonder cities with airports often have a brown haze in the sky overhead.
I do hear a lot of people talking about how unpleasant mass transportation really is. A properly run bus or train system is not an unpleasant experience at all. In fact, I was riding the bus around Victoria, British Columbia recently, and it was one of the most pleasant transportation experiences I have had in quite some time. In addition, I take the train whenever possible. This has been a most marvelous luxury for me. The train has more legroom than any other form of transport I have ever used. The seats are comfortable. The conductors are very attentive, and have become quite special people in my life. And best of all, I have found that there are more hours in the day than I thought there were. All those hours I used to spend with my hands clenched tight on the wheel of a car staring straight ahead of me in grim determination have now become truly useful hours. I get more reading done than I have ever been able to do before. I can study, or write tests, or grade papers. I can go to the restroom without having to worry about finding a gas station. I can go down to the snack bar for a cup of coffee or a sandwich (yes, they sell alcoholic beverages as well). Businessmen bring their laptops. Kids bring their video games. Moms bring their earplugs. And a lot of people just use the time to catch up on sleep. This is just one example of how I have enriched my life by making it simpler.
There are many methods by which we can reduce our transportation impact on the earth. Not only mass transportation. Walking is a good option for many short trips. And you would be amazed at what you miss in the world by sitting closed up in a car (and I'm not telling - you have to get out for yourself and find out). Bicycling is an option for slightly longer trips. For those of you who have no mass transportation, and who live too far to walk or bike to where you need to be, perhaps you should consider carpooling. This cuts expenses in half, or even more, depending on how many people you have in the car. Many people think this is impossible. They work a weird schedule. Nobody lives near them. They have errands after work. Try putting signs up at work - you might be surprised. And as for errands, if you have errands after work, the odds are that the people you are carpooling with might have errands too. You could all agree to stop at the grocery store together. Or pick up clothes at the dry cleaners. It just requires a little planning. Perhaps at first it might be a little inconvenient (it was for me when I first started arranging my schedule around the train), but isn't a little inconvenience worth it for clean water and clean air? How much would you inconvenience yourself to save the life of an endangered species? And how much inconvenience is too much to save the life of a child? Think about it. Give up your life of roadkill. I'll be looking forward to seeing you on the train.
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