The fatal flaws of the automobile

It is no doubt that the invention of the automobile, and subsequently the building of concrete roads, have drastically changed the way most of us live our lives. For many people living in rural or suburban cities, their only source of transportation to and from work is a car. Therefore, It’s safe say that these people practically need an automobile to survive. Others who don’t take a car to work, Would eventually need one in the form of an Uber (or a taxi!) to get to certain places such as an airport. When the automobile was first manufactured, it seemed to make life so much easier by allowing people to get to work and other destinations faster and more efficiently, but this advantage has become a disadvantage. With automobile accidents, congested roads, angry drivers, and red traffic lights, automobiles have evolved into a source of inconvenience rather than a true advancement for civilization. The following is a list of three major flaws that I believe we should consider in determining the place for automobiles in our society.

#1 Automobile accidents

Before I expound on this flaw I’d like to mention that I am aware of the efforts of several AI and automobile companies in the creation of safe self-driving cars to decrease the number of automobile related deaths and injuries. I will go ahead and say now that I don’t believe self driving cars has a place in the true and natural future of human civilization, or rather, I don't believe self-driving cars is a permanent solution to the flaws of the automobile. Self driving cars involve artificial intelligence, and anything involving AI will have its fair share of bugs, glitches, and mishaps. It’s ok if a PC or smartphone glitches or gets a virus. But if these problems happen to the vehicle in which a persons very life clings to, then I would assume one would be a bit cautious if they truly valued their life. Having said that, I do believe that the self-driving cars or similar vehicle may have their place for long distance transportation in the distant future when AI technology is much more advanced, but I don't believe the creation of the self driving car is going to alleviate the dependency that society has developed over the automobile in this day and age. In my opinion, the rise of self-driving cars in society is similar to an addict replacing his source of addiction with a another slightly less dangerous substitute. In other words, people should not have to get into a moving metal cage everyday to survive, and they shouldn’t replace their old metal cages with newer slightly safer ones.

Anyways, automobile accidents is a definite and indisputable problem throughout the world. According to the association for safe international road travel, In the United States alone over 37,000 people die and an additional 2.35 million people are injured or disabled every year as a result of automobile accidents. The same organization claims that unless action is taken, road traffic injuries are predicted to become the fifth leading cause of death in the world by 2030. That prediction is staggering and should be highly concerning to anyone who regularly drives an automobile, assuming the source is credible, and they seem to be. Either way, automobile accidents are not something that society should just continue to let happen with the excuse that its “normal” or “it's just part of life”. Without getting too emotional, I’ll end this paragraph by saying that another person does not have to die or become disabled because society has falsely deemed the automobile a friend to mankind, for reasons I will write about in another post.

#2 Space (not NASA space but land space)

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Everyone knows you cant have cars without roads, highways, and parking lots. And what do roads, highways, and parking lots take up? Space! According to the earth policy institute, about 61,000 square miles of space is dedicated to roads and parking. That’s about as large as the entire state of Florida! This figure may seem small compared to the total landmass of the United States, but compared to the amount of land occupied by rural and suburban cities, this figure becomes much more significant. If you live in practically any city in the United States, This idea should be clearly evident just by walking outside your home. With sidewalks taking up an unreasonably small portion of the land, human beings have basically become bent to the will of the automobile.

#3 Unnecessary stress

If you have ever driven a car on modern streets, you should know exactly what I’m talking about. Though it effects some of us more than others, each and every driver has experienced some form of driving stress over the course of their driving life. Between fender benders, car insurance, traffic citations, fuel consumption, and many other factors, it's no surprise that modern drivers are stressed out. A simple google search of driving stress should be enough to illustrate the negative effect that driving has had and continues to have on the human mind. The worst part about driving stress is that it’s completely unnecessary and its something that we as a people can eliminate from our daily lives if we take the right routes of action, but that’s for another post. I will post a link to an article about driving stress at the end of this post for those who are interested.

Now you might be thinking “why complain about a problem if you’re not going to present any solutions?”, and for this I say that there are several ways to successfully and efficiently run a society without the need for roads or vehicles. I will attempt to present one such solution in a future post (that may be the tenth time I’ve said that), but the main purpose of this post is to present a problem and pose a question that will hopefully spark a debate. And of course anyone is welcome to post a solution down in the comments if they think this is a problem.

I’d also like to mention that I would have included the environmentally unfriendly nature of gas-powered automobiles as one the flaws, but seeing the exponential rise of electric vehicles being manufactured all over the world, I would say this problem is soon to be resolved. Although cars being electric powered does not excuse it or justify its other flaws. Electric powered vehicles is one step, albeit a small step, towards a better tomorrow.

With automobiles and roads so profoundly entwined within our civilization and popular culture, it begs the question, what would society be like without automobiles? For some people reading this article, this may be the first time this question has been presented to you. Other readers may have already pondered this question and came up with a self-convincing answer. A majority of people may not be able to answer this question at all based on their understanding of the impact of the automobile. Please share your thoughts in the comments below. It’s time we had a debate about a topic such as this. Critics and devils advocates are always welcome of course. Please excuse my grammatical errors. If I have stated any inaccurate statements in this article, please feel free to correct me. Peace and love to all.

Citations

1. http://asirt.org/initiatives/informing-road-users/road-safety-facts/road-crash-statistics

2. http://www.earth-policy.org/plan_b_updates/2001/alert12?phpMyAdmin=1d6bec1fea35111307d869d19bcd2ce7

3. http://www.cityclock.org/driving-stress/#.WYcMWrEpChA