Some car-free thoughts!

EVERY SEPTEMBER 22, people from around the world get together in the streets, intersections, and neighbourhood blocks to remind the world that they don’t have to accept a car-dominated society.

It is known as World Car Free Day, a day where many countries encourage their citizens to leave their cars at home and travel by foot, bike, bus or means other than their car.

The purpose of this token exercise is to increase the awareness that by reducing our dependence on them, we are improving air quality, alleviate global warming and promote healthier lifestyles.

Today, the automobile has taken over the world. Cities are designed for cars, not people, and air pollution is increasing in all major cities around the world. What would it be like if there were less cars, roads and parking lots?

That’s what World Car-Free Day is about. It gives everybody a chance to see how quiet it can be and how clean the air could be and how much safer the world would be for all road users.

Cities throughout the world have sprawled to enormous sizes, not because of the population growth, but because of cars. The oil and auto industries want us to believe that the whole solution lies in the production of more efficient cars.

However, regardless of how efficient the cars are manufactured, they still take up a lot of space and serve to isolate people from each other. Above all, they use up and pollute natural resources.

Modern social scientists believe that attention needs to be given to rethinking the way we live and re-designing cities for people more than for cars. We need to begin now to think in a different way about our transportation problems.

We need to enjoy the slower pace and feel, smell, and touch the world around us instead of whizzing by it in our cars.

Try to offer this proposition to ten of your colleagues or friends. I bet at least nine of them would say, “Don’t be silly! Cars are great, fast and convenient.”

Are they right? I say no and no again.

First, cars aren’t anywhere near as fast or convenient as they seem. Problem is, the “time it takes” to get somewhere by car is not just the time spent driving. You also spend time - a lot of it - working to pay for your automotive habits.

Insurance, petrol or diesel, depreciation, parking, mechanics etc., etc! You work, you pay... and your car sits still. If you figure it right, the typical car delivers not 100, not even 40 kph - but between five and fifteen miles per hour”. Some invention!

“But my car is my freedom!” Think again. According to a recent research, it costs upwards of Rs. 400,000 a year for a moderate Sri Lankan user to drive daily his modest car. Someone who earns Rs. 250,000 per year after deductions and taxes - is working over one and half months a year just to pay for their car! “Freedom?” Free to work like a slave, more likely! And as for “status”, people who use cars as status symbols obviously feel they need to prove something. “The bigger the car, the smaller the brains, “as they say.

That’s only the beginning. We haven’t begun to talk about the health, social and environmental costs of car dependency - all of which translate directly to our personal well-being. Plus, the thousands of deaths each year from accidents and high stress and rat-race lifestyles!

“But I need my car! How else could I get around?” Yes, there’s the rub. We’ve designed our urban communities - and many of us have designed our lives - to be car-dependent. And, on top of that, we have a deteriorated public transport system. It’s no fun to leave the car behind and hop into a bus or a train in Sri Lanka. You will be frothing mad as you reach your destination. You cannot sell the concept of World Car Free Day in Sri Lanka. It wouldn’t work!

But there are options, practical options.

Maybe we can miss the World Car Free Day. But we can adapt some creative combination of approaches throughout the year. We can ride or walk shorter distances, wherever possible. When we really need a car, we can first look into car-sharing arrangements, ride sharing, carpooling, and the occasional use of rentals and taxis.

The costs may be more “visible” - but they often add up to much less than full-time single usage. There are hundreds of other approaches. It’s just a change in our mental attitudes what is needed.

Of course, many are not able to escape from total car usage. But as more of us make the leap - or at least take a few steps in the right direction - things will start to improve.