"The auto industry is the only business which praises it's ability to place you inside of a steel cage."

While an automobile certainly provides a comfortable cocoon for the driver, this enclosure quickly transforms into blinding smokescreen.  Many forces have developed to insulate auto drivers from the effects of their purchase.  For example the sight of road-kill, oil impregnated puddles, tree stumps, and pedestrians running out of the way are given minimal attention.  Thus insulated the automobile driver defends his way of life as superior to any other.

It is the goal of this essay to bring to light the adverse effects of an auto-centric lifestyle for those who criticize so called 'alternative transportation.' 

There is no intention within this essay to demean users of motor vehicles, but simply to impress upon them that [my research has led me to believe] this single element is responsible for a disproportionate amount of the sociological, economic, psychological, biological, and environmental damage created in the 20th century.

Excerpted from the 1994 Cycle America Wine country cycling guide:

Most people place their cars' health above their own. However, proper health, whether it is for your body or for your car, requires an expenditure of resources, time and money, and continual monitoring in order to stay truly trouble-free. A car-free lifestyle (bicycles require a negligible amount of maintenance in comparison to a car) allows you to assign the greatest priority to your own personal health.

--"But I'm a good driver."--

If you ask any driver, they will state their own superior driving ability while accusing "that other guy" or reckless driving.   This led to a discovery I came upon in a study funded by Allstate Insurance.  According to this study, 90% of those questioned considered themselves "good" drivers.  Yet, half of those same people admitted to being stopped by police at least once in the previous five years, 53% confessed that they occasionally resort to "racing other drivers" on public roads, 46% admitted to getting behind the wheel after consuming alcohol, and 31% had been involved in a car crash. 

       Psychologically, as human beings we tend to exaggerate the faults of others while glossing over our own.  One need simply listen to the morning traffic report to understand the vast damage caused by auto dependence.  While we are all human, and we all make mistakes, there is a huge difference between bumping shopping carts at 2 mph and bumping fenders at 50.

--"But what if you want to go out into the country?"--

Thousands of car drivers take weekend trips out of the city to 'get away from it all.'  What do many of them discover? That traffic, horns, parking problems, and noise follow them.  This is because while your car may seem perfectly all right, all those other nincompoops out there are preventing you from enjoying your outing.  And they of course, feel the same about you.  

"Once we start waking up to the fact that there's plenty of fascination to be had right under our noses, wherever we are becomes a more remarkable place….
What I find most interesting is my excitement about living each day as though I am a foreigner here."

Maya Talisman Frost
maya@massageyourmind.com

--"Well I certainly feel safer within a car than I would out on the street unprotected."--

This belief can be answered by simple physics. 
Kinetic energy = ½ (mass) x (velocity)2

This shows that the kinetic energy of the vehicle increases as the square of the velocity.  This means that if speed is doubled, the energy increases four times.  This energy increase causes no problem unless it must be dissipated or redirected quickly. When the speed is doubled, four times the energy is available to damage the vehicle and injure its passengers.  To stop this vehicle tremendous energy must be dissipated.  This can be accomplished by impact or by the brakes.  Stopping distance is equal to the square of velocity; therefore, 30 mph requires four times the distance to stop than 15 mph.  Many drivers never think of the consequences of increased speed but they should be aware of the risks involved.   This has resulted in a current environment in which automobile crashes are the highest cause of accidental death in America.

Meanwhile a pedestrian or bicyclist weighing less than 200 lbs and traveling at an average of 10mph has much less inertia resulting in a stopping distance of only a few feet (not to mention the vastly increased maneuverability).  
This means that if a child were to dart in front of a bicyclist (which I've experienced), they don't get sent to the hospital or (G-d forbid) worse.  For those drivers who don't believe a person should be out on the road without a steel shell, just wait until you pass retirement age. Seniors are disproportionately struck by cars because they are no longer able to drive and therefore they must walk unprotected.

In addition to the physical dangers created by the automobile, thousands of people (many of them small children) are killed by Carbon Monoxide produced while an automobile is starting up. 

--"But I can get there so much faster in my car."--

An automobile is definitely faster than many other forms of transportation, but only under ideal conditions.  Having traveled on my humble bicycle in equal or less time than an automobile on several instances, I can truly refute this belief.  Whether it's cold starting, traffic, lack of parking, or digging an auto out of the snow, several factors reduce the door to door time of an auto trip.  For most trips under 5 miles (the average for most errands) bicycle or bus travel is equally fast.

start my car at six
running for thirty minutes
car just warming up

www.honku.org

The best example of this is a trip which I took with several friends in which we both left Rochelle Park, NJ at the same time on a 90degree summer day.  After traveling over 13 miles, crossing two rivers, climbing a 8% grade, crossing the George Washington Bridge, and arriving in Harlem I met my friend who had arrived home about 2 minutes before me.  Apparently the heavy traffic on the bridge had so reduced their traveling time that it equaled the speed of a bicycle.  

Since I will not be having children, this question has been a difficult one for me.  I have seen numerous parents happily traveling with their sons and daughters along bike paths around the country.  In fact the only places where parents feel uncomfortable pulling their kids, is ironically enough on the streets.  Why?  Because of all those large minivans and SUVs driven by parents who feel similarly squeamish about carrying their kids on a bike.  If all of those parents were to pick up a bike trailer (for 1/1000th the cost of a minivan) and 'drive' their kids to school by human power, there would be no danger to kids walking or riding to school.  According to the U.S. Department of Safety automobiles are the highest cause of death for children under 15 years old.  So save your childrens' lungs (and perhaps their lives) by using auto alternatives.

Melissa Fluke (age 9) talks about her family's 'car free days'

Lisa Moffatt talks of her joyful commute with young daughter in tow.

--"But I have to look appropriate at work, I can't arrive all sweaty."--

Commuting by bicycle to a job with a stringent dress code is nothing unusual in many bike friendly cities.  Having traveled in temperatures ranging from 0 degrees F as high as 100 degrees F, I have held several jobs where appropriate dress was mandatory.  There are numerous simple solutions to this dilemma.  Some will elect to leave extra clothes at work and change, some will carry an outfit on a bike rack, while others will simply ride casually in work clothes.  Whatever the option, 5 minutes in the restroom with some towelettes will do wonders for that post-ride sheen.  These people will also feel refreshed, and exhilarated from their ride rather than stressed and frustrated.

--"At least my car keeps me protected from the weather."--

While it's difficult to speak of the joys of cycling (or taking the bus) while it's raining cats and dogs.  I personally enjoy the connection to mother nature that I experience when unusual weather passes through.  It is the most simple way to appreciate the awesome power of Earth's atmosphere. However most suburbanites want to avoid any such 'inconvenience.'  As little as a century ago, walking out into the rain required little more than an umbrella, and boots.  Modern Americans believe that their environment must change to suit their comfort rather than adjusting themselves to suit the environment.  It takes little more than a good jacket, shoe covers, and fenders (or an umbrella for bus commuters) to stay dry in a rainstorm.(1)  And such commuters will be better prepared for the unexpected because they dress for the weather rather than simply pumping up the defogger. 

Plus if my bicycle becomes impractical due to weather conditions, I can always put it on the rack of the nearest bus and arrive at my destination.  The same cannot be said for a motor vehicle.

For those who only venture outside when it's dry and 72 degrees I can only argue that such days will become increasingly rare due to the atmospheric effects produced by air pollution.

--"But it was just an 'accident' I didn't mean to."--

Most automobile drivers label a 'fender bender' as an accident.  This has become so ubiquitous that even urban planners have been using this term.  
(I'm sure you expected this) Websters Dictionary defines an accident as 

1:  an unforeseen and unplanned event or circumstance 
2 :  an unfortunate event resulting especially from carelessness or ignorance

Now when an individual operates a 3-4000 pound motor vehicle, that person is taking on an enormous responsibility.  I have found it rare to meet an auto driver who truly appreciates this responsibility.  Given that an automobile averages 40mph,  that car will travel 58 feet per second.  Now given that an average car (probably not an SUV) will require 67 feet to stop at the above stated speed.  This means that an automobile driver has 2 seconds to spot and react to an unexpected danger.  The fact that this is humanly impossible is reflected in the number of car crashes announced each weekday morning. 

The effects of such danger is that consumers have increasingly sought out ever larger vehicles so that they can feel safe (and screw the other guy who's hit).  Those who previously bought minivans to feel safe, then had to fear from people driving SUVs.  They therefore bought SUVs also, but now they have to fear someone driving a Hummer.  The situation has escalated to the point where drivers are not only expressing road-rage in their driving habits, some are actively shooting at each other.

Not only does this exemplify our worsening state of society, but it continues to create an ever increasing thirst for oil which is dangerously shifting world politics.  If changes aren't made quickly, terrorism - wrought by the desperate - will further destabilize world economies.

It therefore must be stated that I don't believe auto drivers purposefully look to endanger people's lives (above examples excepted).  The argument presented here is meant to make obvious the fact that we are all human, and as human beings we make mistakes.  The reason that automobiles cause such a high percentage of city damage is that any mistake made in an automobile can become deadly in an instant.

Author's Note:
I have never owned a driver's license and yet I've traveled and documented transportation in more than a dozen states across the country.  Nearly every image on this site was taken from the back of my two wheeled companion.

What will the world's auto users do when the price of gasoline begins to reflect the true cost of extraction and refinement?  Well the suggestions on this page may help.

For more bicycle images visit http://www.bikereader.com/BikeReader/images/photography.html