I was like most people and passed my driving test (in the UK) as soon as I could as a teenager. I drove for a few years and it was fine but I wasn’t ever someone who loved cars. I suppose it was just cheaper not to own a car while at University and that gives you a break from just doing the normal, car ownership, thing. So I just never bothered getting one after graduating. I’ve never really thought of it in those terms but a significant part of not wanting to own a car is that I am very aware of the potential to do a lot of damage to someone else. Which is sort of what you asked.
It’s never really been an issue. Part of that is, of course, that car ownership is so main stream that someone else can always give you a lift at the rare times when there is no alternative. Family wedding this week, I’ll get a lift, no trouble. But mainly I walk or cycle to get somewhere. When you think about it, it is a bit odd how many people get in a car to work, then drive to the gym and then back home. Effectively paying for the gym to make up for the exercise they don’t get because they drive so much while also paying for the car. I did live in the US for some years and people said it would be impossible not to own a car but I just decided to live somewhere with a nice cycle route to work.
Maybe you all take it for granted but the number of shops and restaurants, in the US, that only had a car park and could not be accessed by foot is a bit odd. I think it’s a bit more than a personal decision. You have to choose to build the infrastructure to allow normal people not to own cars. Or even aim for one car per household would be a start,
I’m in the UK as well, but i’ve always lived outside of cities. I commute 50 miles each way every day. My kids go to schools 20 miles away. Their sports centre is 6 miles away. If i was to rely on public transport it would take me 3 days to get to work. So car ownership is a necessary evil for myself and many others. I’d imagine that very few people driving along the roads are doing it becasue they want to be there.
I think this is the fundamental shift that will need to occur if we want to meaningfully reduce car usage. Instead of waiting for public transport to come to us, we will have to go to public transport.
People will have to become more used to living in cities, while also finding a way to get their peace outside the city. This will increase ridership and while encouraging infrastructure investment so that we can continue building out public transport more.
We might get some urban sprawl, which leads to encroachment on “natural” land and displacement of native species, but we’re going to have to figure out which evil we want to embrace.
You’re never going to have this fundamental shift. Unless for some reason living in suburbs becomes so astronomically expensive, that it’s cheaper to live in a city. That hasn’t happened anywhere that I know of.
This argument of we could fix this if we just all moved to cities and used public transportation is a non-starter. If people wanted to live in cities in far higher numbers than we already have, we would have figured out the housing piece already. But that’s just not the case. People want to have bigger houses or at least more land, they don’t in general want to be crammed in a city in a condo.
If you want to dramatically decrease the number of cars on the road then require companies to allow work from home for any employee that doesn’t need to physically at the office.
The number of people we have commuting, even within a suburb, so they can go into an office to stare at computer screen is astronomical. That fix at least could provide some solution. You just aren’t going to be able to force people to live in cities nor should we go down that path.
I see your point. I think the one thing we can agree is on the need to eliminate the commute. Either through living close to your work, or working from home.