Planes, Trains, and Automobiles

I’m fortunate in that I don’t have to own a car (of course, if trucks stopped delivering goods to New York City, I’d be in trouble). But living a car-less life isn’t always easy. While making travel arrangements for a business trip from NYC to Framingham, MA next week (I’ll have to drive), a passage from The Growth Illusion by Richard Douthwaite came to mind:

"It is easy -- and valid -- for one person to say that, as things stand, if he had a car he would be better off because it would be quicker and pleasanter than walking to the bus through the wind and rain. But the process of giving a car to that person and everyone else who wants one changes the situation so drastically that it is not possible to say whether, after the process has been completed, the community as a whole will be better off and the new car owners will get the benefits they thought they would. The increase in traffic might lengthen journey times to such an extent that new car owners take longer to get to work than they did before. Other people's journey times will almost certainly go up as a result of congestion, and the total time the community spends traveling to and from work could increase. Bus frequencies may be cut and fares raised for lack of demand. Thus, even though GNP will increase because of the extra spending on transport, it is possible -- even probable -- that the country as a whole will be worse off in welfare terms and that many people will be running their cars largely out of necessity because of the way things have developed and not because they like doing so."

- Richard Douthwaite from The Growth Illusion