A car guy’s thoughts on cities for people

Just because I love cars doesn't mean I don't love cities.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve been super interested in cars. It’s possible to chalk it up to me being born and raised in the metro Detroit area, and the ties that I feel to the automotive industry that once powered our region, but even then, it is unclear how exactly I ended up being so fascinated with cars. 

I actually tried asking my parents when I first became obsessed with cars - they don’t know either. It’s basically a fundamental part of my being, and it shaped my upbringing in a way that can’t really be quantified. It’s not just supercars that caught my interest - cars of all shapes and sizes catch my attention. I have memories of myself using the ‘Build-and-Price’ and ‘Compare’ feature on carmakers’ websites from as early as five years old (a particularly vivid one was when I was at my grandmothers’ house overseas in 2009, using the computer to compare a Hummer to some of its rivals). 

Seeing this, you might be asking yourself why on earth I am an urbanist? If cars are so important to who I am, why do I joke about banning them? Why do I hate the way our cities were designed? Surely, as a car guy, I would appreciate the way that our cities accommodate my favorite hobby and interest. 

The answer to that question is both complex yet simple. The simple answer is – yes, I love cars, but I hate the way our culture has taken cars and ruined our society with them. Driving is really fun, but only an open, curvy street, and with a car that matches the road. There is nothing appealing about sitting in traffic for hours on end, or driving the half of all car trips that are less than 3 miles across my sprawling suburban town to do errands.

As a car guy, I believe that I would be able to enjoy cars better if we eliminated the toxic car dependency that has engulfed the United States. When ‘car guys’ fantasize about a dream drive, they don’t envision barreling down a city street at 120 miles per hour (well, possibly some do, but those people are weird). The pinnacle of driving isn’t a stroad in suburban Kentucky, it’s a winding road through the Italian alps. No one has ever made a TV show about American urban highways, but there is a cult following for a show about racing through Japan’s curving mountain highways.

Americans have what seems to be Stockholm syndrome-esque relationship with traffic, preferring to complain about it yet never really do anything about it, but traffic is never positive. In fact, the average American spends nearly up to 100 hours in traffic yearly. And as long as we create a car dependent society, we force ourselves into traffic. The “fundamental law of road congestion” (Duranton and Turner) has been proven time and time again - adding lanes only adds traffic. You can't build your way out of congestion. Providing public transportation doesn't alleviate traffic either (see Duranton). 

The only thing that can reduce traffic is eliminating the ability for traffic to proliferate. Further building out our lifestyles in a manner that requires cars to travel long distances and park in big parking lots won’t fix traffic, and it definitely won’t help me as a car guy enjoy my favorite hobby. Cars are a luxury, costing the average American $8,615 every year (including the cost of buying a car, per AAA). 

Cities for cars are worse than cities for people, in every metric not named “parking spaces.” Cities designed for cars kill more people. In 2019, 3,273 people died of traffic accidents in Florida (pop. 21.5M), compared to 661 in the Netherlands (pop 17.4M), which is one of the best examples of both designing cities for people and redesigning them for people. Cars create noise pollution, emit 85-95% of carbon monoxide in cities and generate particulate matter, which won’t be solved through electrification. 

Just because I love cars, doesn’t mean I don’t care about the people around me. It doesn’t mean I want to get on the highway for 45 minutes in the morning and evening to drive to my job. It doesn’t mean I want all of my neighbors to be forced to spend thousands of dollars to functionally exist in society. It doesn’t mean I want everyone who lives near a high-traffic road to be forced to breathe in my fumes nor does it mean I want to make a society that forces you to risk death on the way to the grocery store. 

I want to love driving my car, not dread getting in it. Choking cars down the collective throat of society doesn’t do that - it just makes it infinitely worse.

Photo by Robson Hatsukami Morgan on Unsplash.