The Car: Environmental Death Machine (or, Cars SUCK!)

As far as individual consumers go, the "family" car is the product that is the most harmful to this planet. Even before you drive it your car has already been the most earth-destroying product: for each pound of metal produced, steel mills use about 250 pounds of water, or about 1000 gallons of water per car, about 40,000 gallons of water for the entire car. Add to that the glues, paints, and other chemicals, and you have a real planet death machine. But making the car took only 1/8 energy the energy that it will use in a life time, so how much you drive it does matter. Additional planetary destruction occurs during oil exploration and production, road maintenance and construction and auto maintenance. And when the car dies many if not all of the components go to the car cemetery--your local landfill.

People in the U.S. drive as much as all the other drivers in the world combined. Worst of all is the urban assault vehicle. These vehicles assault us and the environment much more than your standard compact. They guzzle twice the fuel and do twice the damage to smaller cars when involved in an accident.

Traffic accidents kill more people than illegal drugs or guns. About 47,000 people are killed each year on U.S. roads, almost as many U.S. soldiers that died during the entire Vietnam War. Estimates of additional deaths per year caused by motor vehicle emissions range from 30,000 to 60,000. Death rates for motor vehicle travel are about 10 times higher than any other form of transportation, including air and rail. Less than 100 human lives have been lost in AMTRAK accidents since its creation in 1971.

The U.S. spends nearly $200,000,000 per day building and rebuilding roads, in spite of predictions that congestion and delays will only get worse. The U.S. General Accounting Office predicts that this country's road congestion will triple in 15 years even if capacity is increased by 20 percent. Pavement now covers over 60,000 square miles in the U.S.--two percent of the total surface area, and 10 percent of all arable land.

Single-driver cars add tremendously to this problem, and many SDCs have an attitude. They disdain pedestrians; they think they own the road (especially the newer or more expensive the car--for some reason the price paid per car equates to owning more of the road); they want everyone out of the way (their way). Two SDCs have twice the environmental impact that a car with driver and rider would have. We are subsidizing the SDC by paying for more roads, road repair and environmental destruction.

Stump Talk did an informal poll and found that about 90 percent of the commuters on Interstate 5 were SDCs. If all of these SDCs rode with someone the cars on the road would be almost cut in half. Meanwhile, we've come up with some other alternatives to consider:

Car pool, combine errands, take transit, legislate mass transit, walk, ride a bike, work at home. Make all the lanes of highways carpool lanes but one. Give cars with more drivers more lanes. Give tax breaks to people who do not own a car--and maybe free or greatly reduced bus passes. Have a special car pool licensing--a car that is dedicated (for its life) would get greatly reduced licensing fees and get a gas tax rebate. If they provide parking places for employees where you work and you don't have a car, ask for an equivalent raise in your wage. One day a week have only carpools on the road. Double the cost of parking spaces for SDCs.

Form car co-ops. In Germany over 3,000 people belong to car co-ops; there are car co-ops in 100 cities across Europe. Individuals do not own a car but join the co-op and then rent cars owned by the co-ops as they need them. Eugene, Oregon is also experimenting with this concept. Implement "traffic calming" the name for road design strategies that reduce vehicle speeds and volumes. These include narrowing streets, introducing horizontal alignment shifts, increasing stops, applying contrasting and textured road surfaces, and increasing the presence of bicyclists and pedestrians along roadways.

Due to the time cars require to buy, maintain, pay to insure, etc., in addition to sitting in traffic, the U.S. motorist actually averages only five miles per hour. Primitive walking cultures can provide for more efficient transportation without the pollution, pavement, and thralldom to corporate interests. Our love affair with the car is an abusive relationship. We need to get out. It's bad for us and bad for the environment.

Some material for this article came from Stuff: The Secret Lives of Everyday Things by John Ryan and Allan Durming, fact sheets prepared by the Alliance for A Paving Moratorium and Rain Magazine. Stump Talk is put out every other week by a few ecofreaks. If you want to help out or for more info contact NW Forest Action Group, 206-632-1656, e-mail can@scn.org.