The Other Oil Crisis

We've all heard about the oil crisis: the price of oil is high, we may be running out, the car exhaust causes health problems, and, oh yeah, it's contributing to global warming (or weirding.) And we're all familiar with the innovation the crisis is spurring in automobiles: electric cars, hybrid cars, fuel cell cars, and solar cars to name a few. But those innovations fail to address deeper concerns with an automobile centric society:

1. DEATH AND INJURY. The US Department of Transportation announced that in 2007 there were 41,059 deaths and 2,490,000 people injured in vehicle accidents, and those were the lowest figures in fourteen years. (As Robert Reich points out, the only reason the numbers are down is because the economy is slow and so people are driving less.) If a foreign country attacked and injured 1% of those numbers we'd be at war and spending billions of dollars, so why not address this issue. Also, as the developing world aspires to the US standard of living, we should consider that already over 1.2 million people die worldwide in vehicle accidents.
   
2. LOST TIME. In the US it is estimated the average driver spends 38 hours stuck in traffic per year. (In Los Angeles 98 hours, Houston 56 hours). This is not just frustrating, it is time away from families and time lost from productive working. Unlike time on a train, you can't work (safely) while driving. The cost of congestion is estimated to be over $78.2 billion annually.
   
3. SOCIAL INTERACTION. Cars are bubbles. The only way drivers communicate with others on the highway is with horns, lights, and often the middle finger. How many people have met their husbands or wives while commuting in separate cars on the highway? Sharing a public space, like a train compartment, would result in increased public discourse and a greater feeling of community, which we could use when addressing some of our other problems.
   
4. RESOURCE USE. The roadways are publicly funded for construction and repair. From 1998 to 2003 US highway spending alone cost approximately $80 billion per year. And building more roads only adds to the cost, and uses up more land.
   

Cars are of course an attractive method of travel. But often we think they are so attractive simply because they are the only reliable option. The time is for our leaders to make a serious commitment to building a public transportation system worthy of a first rate nation. Yes, there will always be times when an automobile is simply the best way to go, like on moving day, or to transport people to the hospital. For the rest of the time, we need reliable, clean, safe, fast public transportation.