Are we driving towards a car-free future?
When the Ford Motor Company introduced the large-scale manufacturing of cars in the 1900s, the American economy was booming and fuel prices were low. More than a century later the impact of cars has been keenly felt around the world. Catherine Simpson shows how our dependence on the 'tin monster' might be a thing of the past.
Until recently, the centrality of the car to mobility and human flourishing was unquestioned. But, in what could still be regarded as a nation of proud car owners if judged by the documentary The Wide Open Road (ABC TV 2011), Australia’s relationship with the car is beginning to shift. Rather than symbolising progress and freedom, the car is now more often regarded as a (un)necessary evil, and governments are looking at ways to combat its many ills.
Our reliance on the motor vehicle is the single most significant environmental challenge facing our cities, not to mention the economic, social and health costs.
Globally, automobiles are responsible for one-fifth of energy-related CO2 emissionsi. They cause congestion, choking the movement of goods and people and effectively putting a ‘handbrake’ on the Australian economy, costing an estimated $9 billion in 2005.
Health and social costs of car-dependence include inactivity and obesity, premature death from car-generated air pollution, road deaths and injuries (1370 deaths and 32 500 serious accidents in 2010 Australia-wide), as well as social exclusion for people who can’t participate in society without a car (the aged, people under 18, those on low incomes or with mobility impairment).
These stats from the National Transport Commission’s 2011 report ( ‘Exploring the opportunities for the Reform: discussion paper, Smart Transport for a growing nation project’) paint an extremely bleak scenario for the future of our cities under the tyranny of the car. However emerging trends in industrialised countries around the world reveal a glimmer of hope, especially in relation to young people’s car use and attitudes.
In the US for example, despite the largest teenage population ever, the number of teenage drivers has fallen below 10 million (from a peak of 12 million in 1978)ii.
Empirical data shows car use has peaked and is now in decline in many of the developed countries around the world. That is due to the result of rapid growth in public transport, and reduction of car use by both older and younger people due to the emerging culture of urbanism, as well as increases in fuel prices.iii
Over the last year in the City of Sydney, cycling increased by 60 per cent. For young people, social media and the mobile phone have replaced the car as more authentic symbols of freedom, progress and autonomy.
In Sydney, more than 18,000 people car share. In the US, one car share vehicle removes 20 privately owned vehicles off the road.
In 2008, Catherine Simpson set up a new Honours seminar unit in the Department of Media, Music, Culture & Communication at Macquarie University called ‘Eco-interventions: Cultures of Climate change’. Since then she has become fascinated with the ecological humanities and is also pursuing research in car cultures.Before joining Macquarie University in 2002, Catherine taught media, film and cultural studies at a number of institutions around Australia including University of New South Wales, University of Western Sydney and Murdoch. She completed her PhD thesis, “Imagined Geographies: women’s and space in contemporary Australian cinema” at Murdoch University, Perth in 2001 and has since fantasised about becoming a cultural geographer. While living in Istanbul in the 1990s, she narrowly survived co-directing an Australian film festival in Istanbul (1994) and a reciprocal Turkish film festival that toured Sydney, Melbourne and Perth in 1998. Catherine is currently seconded to the Faculty of Science to convene Macquarie's new Science Communication programme. Her research interests include gender and geography, Australian and Turkish cinema, and most recently she has become fascinated with cane toads and future car cultures.
