Corporations Are Not Humans : Not Even Close --- Episode 57

                                            GOOD LIVING---continued

              From Overconsumption To Sustainable Community
                                                  (continued)

                          URBAN SPACE AND TRANSPORT

   In Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns, David Engwicht reminds us that people invented cities as places devoted to human interaction.  The purpose of cities is to "facilitate exchange of information , friendship, material goods, culture, knowledge, insight, and skills" with little need for travel." Cities once consisted primarily of exchange places for people --- places such as shops, schools, residences, and public buildings. The pathways that connected exchange spaces were also places to meet and reaffirm relationships with neighbors. 
  The automobile has changed our cities in fundamental ways, colonizing ever more of the spaces that were once devoted to human exchange and transforming them into systems of parking lots connected by highways. Thus, many of the spaces that once brought us together have been converted into noisy, congested, polluting places that isolate us from one another and destroy the quality of city life. The faster and more densely the traffic flows through our neighborhood, the less we feel at home there and the less likely we are to relate to and befriend our neighbors. 
   The automobile is not only one of our least energy-efficient modes of transportation, it is also one of our least space efficient. When we take into account the multiple parking spaces that each car must have at home, office, shopping center, church, recreational facilities, and school, plus the amount of road space required for its movement, the total space required by each family car is typically three times greater than the space occupied by the average family home. 
   One reason people flee to the suburbs is to escape the environmental and social consequences of giving cities over to automobiles. When productive agricultural lands are paved over, we become separated from nature and one another by even greater distances, our dependence on automobiles increases,and per capita energy consumption skyrockets, both for transportation and to heat and cool the detached, single-family dwellings in which suburbanites live. There is sound foundation for the conclusion of urban ecologists William Rees and Mark Roseland that "sprawling suburbs are the most economically, environmentally, and socially costly pattern of residential development humans have ever devised." 
   Automobile companies sell their products as tickets to freedom, defined in many auto ads as the escape by automobile from city and suburbs to the unspoiled countryside. It is ironic, because the automobile has been perhaps the single greatest contributor to making our urban areas unlivable, turning our countryside into sprawling suburbs and strip malls, and making us more dependent on cars to survive the consequences of this affliction. 
   In 1950, the average American drove some 2,356 miles. That figure has risen to 6,014 miles by 1990. Greater Freedom ???? Roughly half of the miles Americans drive involve commuting to work on congested roadways. Between 1969 and 1990, the number of miles traveled to work by the average American household increased 16 percent. The second major use of cars is shopping. The average distance traveled for shopping increased by 88 percent. A third use is for matters such as business travel, delivering children to and from school, doctor visits, and church attendance ---up 135 percent. Social and recreational travel actually declined by 1 percent, perhaps because we had less time left for it. It is estimated that in the largest U.S. urban areas, 1 billion to 2 billion hours a year are wasted due to traffic congestion. In Bangkok, the average worker loses the equivalent of forty-four working days a year sitting in traffic.
   It is not difficult to figure out who benefits from this damage to the quality of our living. In terms of sales, the three largest corporations in America are General Motors (cars), Exxon Corporation (oil), and Ford Motor Company (cars). Mobil Corporation (oil) is number seven. 
   In 1992 Groiningen, a Dutch city of 170,000 people, dug up its city-center highways and took a variety of steps to make the bicycle the main form of transportation. As a consequence, business has improved, rents have increased, and the flow of people out of the city has been reversed. Local businesses that once fought any restraint on the automobile are now clamoring for more restraint. 
   It is a step that many more cities should take. Few measures would do more to improve the quality of our living and the health of our environment than organizing living spaces to reduce our dependence on the automobile. Other actions to help accomplish this include planning and controlling the use of urban space to increase urban density and the proximity of work, home, and recreation ; restricting parking facilities ; increasing taxes on gasoline ; and investing in public transit and facilities for pedestrians and cyclists.
   "Hold on," says the corporate libertarian. "What about the impact on the economy ? One job in six in the United States is linked to the auto industry. In Australia, it is one in ten. Unemployment would skyrocket and stock prices would plummet if we were to reorganize space to do away with the automobile. It would be an economic disaster."

   This important point is best answered with another question. Is it rational to structure an economy so that investors profit from socially harmful investments and the only employment people can find involves doing things that reduce our quality of life ? An intelligent species can surely find a better way to provide people with a means of livelihood.