Read on Twitter
Inspired by this thread, we want to talk about what fairness means in car dependent society (and if you haven’t read Susan’s thread yet — start there).
Alright -- here we go... https://twitter.com/susancashmere/status/1286225050425753600
Alright -- here we go... https://twitter.com/susancashmere/status/1286225050425753600
Let’s start with this truth: cars have done amazing things for us. They offer the freedom to travel almost anywhere, whenever we want, with bulky luggage and little need to plan ahead.
Cars have made it easier for us to connect with our friends and family who live far away. They’ve created job opportunities. They’ve made once unimaginable journeys a possibility for many families.
But these freedoms have come at a cost — and this cost has fallen most significantly on the poorest and most vulnerable in our society.
Just what costs are we talking about? Deaths, accidents, life-altering injuries, air and noise pollution, congestion, community severance and the loss of social cohesion.
Some costs are still to come — like the unspeakable impacts climate change will have on our youngest and subsequent generations. This is a burden they will bear.
The freedom to move around with ease is something we want to keep. But that freedom must be exercised without compromising the rights of others to live free of these costs.
Did you know the UK has been described by the Commission on Integrated Transport as the most car-dependent country in Europe? Yep, sadly, it’s true.
The past few decades have seen the cost of alternatives to cars — like public transport — rise in real terms while the cost of driving has fallen. This has led to more car journeys, more congestion, and a road environment hostile to everyone.
We’ve all been the pedestrian mouthing curses under our breath as a car speeds through the crossing before our feet.
And we’ve all been the motorist cursing the stupidity of the pedestrian who has gotten in the way of our car.
The way things are, no one is having a good time.
And we’ve all been the motorist cursing the stupidity of the pedestrian who has gotten in the way of our car.
The way things are, no one is having a good time.
But that hostile environment goes beyond just interpersonal anger. Our land use pattern has also become more hostile to things other than cars. Shops and services have moved to locations that are easy to access by car, and hard to access otherwise.
Once car dependency starts, it’s hard to stop.
And the monetary costs of this car dependency are huge — the Department of Transport estimated the cost to English urban areas at £38-49 billion — the hidden cost of delays, accidents, noise and physical inactivity.
But we're not just paying with money, we’re paying with our health. Research from the Institute of Transport Economics in Oslo suggests that the cost of community severance caused by busy roads is greater than the cost of noise and almost equal to the cost of air pollution.
And as we’ve already mentioned, the impacts of our car dependency are unevenly distributed. What does that mean in reality? This:
1. Whilst over 80% of households have a car, one in five men and one in three women don’t drive.
2. The richest 10 percent of the population receive four times as much public spending on transport as the poorest 10 percent.
3. Children of the lowest socioeconomic groups are up to 28 times more likely to be killed on the roads than those on the top socioeconomic group.
4. The most common cause of death for children aged 5-14 years is being hit by a car.
5. Car owners in the lowest income quintile spend 25 percent of total household expenditure on motoring.
6. Black and black British people have amongst the lowest car ownership rates, while in London they are 30% more likely to be injured on the road than white ethnic groups.
7. In the lowest income quintile, less than half of households have a car. But half of all households in the highest income quintile have two or more cars.
8. Those over the age of 60 are seven times more likely to be killed if hit by a car at 30mph and 35% of all pedestrian fatalities are people over the age of 70.
9. 55% of trains in Great Britain have not been built to modern access standards and 41 percent of stations to not have step free access to all platforms.
The inequality of car dependency is twofold. Those with the worst access opportunities also suffer the worst effects of other people’s travel — leaving them “less travelled” and “travelled upon”.
If you take one thing from this thread, let it be this:
Your transport choices affect other people — whether your means of travel is private or not.
It’s time we all did whatever we can to stop our choices making the lives of our neighbours worse.
Your transport choices affect other people — whether your means of travel is private or not.
It’s time we all did whatever we can to stop our choices making the lives of our neighbours worse.
The information contained in this thread comes from the brilliant report from the sustainable development commission. Please read it: https://road.cc/sites/default/files/fairness_car_dependant.pdf
