Blog
Why I Hate My Car and How Michigan’s Transportation System Is Failing People Like Me
The "Bra Car" at its best: parked
By Sean Mann
As I sit here in my mechanic's waiting room watching Maury and anticipating my second $300+ bill in as many weeks, I've come to a stark conclusion: I really hate my car! And every time I climb into my well-worn '97 Chrysler Sebring it is a subtle reminder that the state of Michigan has failed people like me.
Don't get me wrong, my car has been great to me over the years. We've been through a lot together. Prom, classic road trips, and an insane decision to live in Detroit and yet commute every day 89 miles one way to a job in Lansing.
It has become an extension of me. My friends affectionately refer to it as the "bra car" because the remnants of my fender have been held in place for two years by a pleather bra after a run-in with the side of the Lodge. And after a couple winters, that pleather bra is as well worn and tattered as my Chuck Taylors.
But I'm sick of it.
My angst isn't simply directed towards my "bra car," it's directed towards all cars. And not to offend Michigan's heritage and primary industry, but I've grown tired of the role automobiles play in my life. I am tired of the maintenance, the bills, the congestion, the fill-ups, and the time I feel constrained in them.
Here are just a few of my grievances with the mode of transportation that Henry Ford, Billy Durant, the Fischer Brothers, and our other industrial forefathers have forever linked to our fine state:
• Expensive: A blown tire? $160 out your pocket. Now imagine blowing out six tires and cracking two rims in a nine-month span. Ridiculous.
• Maintenance: I have a bachelor's degree in physics and like most everyone under the age of 50 I wouldn't even know where to begin on making a repair to my car, which means I'm entirely dependent on mechanics who aren't exactly known for their trustworthiness.
• Expensive Insurance: I choose to live in a city. Unfortunately, that city has crime and incredibly high car insurance rates. Even with the most basic insurance that is mandated by the state of Michigan, my annual rates are roughly equivalent to the value of my car!
• Unsafe: Engineers have performed miracles making cars safer over the years, but with countless drivers making countless individual decisions around you, driving is still the most dangerous thing you'll do all day (assuming you don't go to Long John Silver's).
• Expensive Gas: While we've gotten a reprieve in 2009 from $4 gas, it's temporary. With international demand growing and a finite supply, prices will inevitably rise again.
• Anti-social: How much time do we waste in our cars, alone, in a cramped space of stagnant air and mindless radio, desensitized to the world around us? If you are an average American, well over a 100 hours a year (or more time than many of us get in vacation time).
• Really Expensive: The average annual cost of car ownership was $8,758 in 2007, or roughly 20 percent of annual household income. In fact, a statistically average household spent more on transportation than it did on clothing, health care, and entertainment combined ($7,432).
And I am not alone in my disgust. The average American is driving four percent less in 2009 than they did last year, while transit ridership in Michigan went up seven percent. Part of this decrease can be attributed to the economy and high gas prices, but in fact this unprecedented trend began in the summer of 2007 before the $4 gas and the implosion of Wall Street.
Sure most people are adjusting their lives to make shorter trips and to avoid getting in the car. But there is a significant number of us that would like to cut cars out of our lives altogether or at least significantly reduce our dependence, and this is where the state of Michigan is failing us.
While Michigan has some accomplished transit authorities in places like Lansing and Grand Rapids, on the whole, it has failed to develop an integrated and comprehensive statewide transportation system that goes beyond roads and actually incorporates trains, light rail, buses, and ‘complete streets' ordinances for biking and pedestrians.
What could be
I lived in England for two years and was able to go almost my entire time there without setting foot in an automobile. It was glorious and admittedly, frustrating. I lost twenty pounds in spite of a significant increase in my consumption of lager and late-night kebabs. At the same time, it was an immense pain moving things and the buses and Tube could be unbearably cramped and pungent. But I always appreciated the fact that I had options other than owning an automobile.
Lansing's dysfunctional and disjointed approach to alternative modes of transportation is rooted in its unwillingness or incapability to acknowledge the fact that there are people that can afford a car but would prefer to use transit. Decision makers in Michigan have yet to fully appreciate that transit isn't just for the poor, but also those people that want to enjoy some beers at the game with friends without squabbling over the DD role, or don't want to have to worry about parking, or would rather read on a train than negotiate the S-curve or I-696.
And yet, Michigan doesn't have a cohesive transit system that offers these kinds of opportunities and in turn it impedes our competitiveness with the likes of Boston, Chicago, and New York. These regions are doing a hell of a lot better at attracting the young professionals that are going to shape the 21st century.
As Nate Silver recently pointed out in Esquire:
Still, there is some evidence that more Americans are at least entertaining the idea of leading a more car-free existence. Between October 2004, when gas prices first hit two dollars a gallon, and December 2008, when they fell below this threshold, three cities with among the largest declines in housing prices were Las Vegas (-37 percent), Detroit (-34 percent), and Phoenix (-15 percent), each highly car-dependent cities. Conversely, the two markets with the largest gains in housing prices were Portland, Oregon (+19 percent), and Seattle (+18 percent), communities that are more friendly to alternate modes of transportation.
Michigan's cities were built around cars and that won't change any time soon. But the fact remains, when you build cities around cars, you get lots of cars, and that is increasingly unattractive to people.
I appreciate the fact that it is highly unrealistic that Detroit or Grand Rapids will be at any point in the foreseeable future, cities where I could exist without a car. In fact, hardly a handful of metropolitan areas exist in America where the average individual (not including biking nuts and transit zealots with a point to prove) could exist without a vehicle and not take a significant hit to their ability to carry on their life.
All I'm asking for is a transportation system that seriously acknowledges modes of transportation that go beyond the automobile and occasionally allows me to escape my "bra car." I firmly believe Michigan's ability to redefine itself depends on it.
My justifiable 'urban camo'
blog comments powered by Disqus
