Did you know today is World Car-Free Day? I saw something about it on my trip to D.C. (naturally) but didn’t realize this was a worldwide effort.
Because I’m actually in my car living life today I’ll let the Competitive Enterprise Institute pick things up from here. They can even shill for themselves, I’ll be nice.
As organizers prepare to observe “World Car-Free Day” tomorrow, the Competitive Enterprise Institute would like to remind observers and participants of the value of personal mobility and the advantages of car ownership.
“While many people love the idea of a car-free lifestyle, for most people it would be difficult, inconvenient and isolating,” said Sam Kazman, CEI General Counsel. “The handicapped, the elderly, parents with kids and groceries, suburban residents getting to work, rural residents running their lives – all depend on cars. The car-free lifestyle itself requires other motorized vehicles, which deliver everything from organic flour to fair trade coffee.
While the one-day-a-year observance of the event may be harmless, policies that seek to restrict consumer choice are not. There are a host of activists and policymakers who would like to use taxes, fees, zoning restrictions and other regulations to make owning one’s own car more difficult and expensive. For that reason, supporters should have a clear vision of what their lives would be like without access to a car before endorsing the agenda behind events like Car-Free Day.
For a realistic day of car-free living, try it:
- When it’s raining
- When you’re carrying several bags of groceries
- When you’re carrying a baby, with a toddler alongside you
- On crutches
- After midnight
- Without using a car or cab to get to the train or bus station
- Any combination of the above
Watch CEI’s video from Car-Free Day 2008 here.
For more on CEI’s work on automobility, see “Cars, Women, and Minorities: The Democratization of Mobility in America,” by Alan Pisarski and “Car-Free Days? No, Thank You,” by Waldemar Hanasz.
The thought behind “World Car-Free Day” is that same line of thinking which gives us “New Urbanism” and “Smart Growth”, both of which are really efforts to curtail freedom by placing more and more developable land off limits and cramming people into predesignated areas where “growth” is allowed. Listening to the proponents you would think that most of Delmarva is months away from becoming downtown Baltimore.
If you wish to place your life at the mercy of a publicly-run transportation entity to achieve those things you need to do in order to live life it’s up to you. Certainly there are areas where this is nearly possible, but Delmarva’s not one of them. Nor can the tourists required to keep various parts of the area economy going come solely via public transportation.
So I’ll continue to access the transportation and freedom I purchased as I enjoy my day, thank you.
I have one request though – can we declare a “World Tyranny-Free Day” soon? That would make a lot more sense and improve the lifestyle of billions!
Michael, no one is compelling you to give up your car– not even for a day. The idea behind car free day is just to encourage people for whom it might be practical to go without a car to try it for a day, in the hopes that they might decide that it works for them. I have managed to function without a car for 11 years now. I realize this wouldn’t be practical in all parts of Maryland, and I wouldn’t dream of forcing anyone else to follow my example, but if a program like this gets people to try it, it’s a good thing. Yes, it is a drag to carry groceries in the rain, and yes, it might not be practical if you have small children, but there are advantages: I save lots of money, I get lots of exercise (in the pre cul de sac era, obesity was a lot less common) and yes, it is better for the environment. It also has the advantage that when a politician tries comparing requiring people to buy health insurance to requiring car owners to have insurance, I can stand up and say “excuse me, I don’t have car insurance”.
No one is compelling me yet. But there are ways to get people out of their cars that groups like this do stand foursquare in favor of.
Since I know you live in that area of the state, you know the controversy behind finishing the Inter-County Connector (I think that’s what it’s called) – continually calling for impact studies and trying to defund construction is a stealth way to make a car less useful. (Spending gas tax money for public transport instead of on roads as intended serves a similar purpose.) Zoning regulations packing people into areas served by mass transit is another way to discourage car use and increase dependence on public transport.
I happened to be in D.C. today and found out what an interesting experience it is to secure parking there. Yet it wasn’t convenient to use Metro because where I was staying was far enough from the Green Line that I figured driving would be just as easy (I certainly didn’t want to take my chances on a bus route.)
The auto insurance vs. health insurance argument doesn’t work for me either because I believe neither should be mandated. Advisable of course, but not mandated.