Perhaps nothing in the 20th century has quite the effect on the planet and
the human race as the personal automobile. For the richest nations of
the world it is the main form of travel. It increases our range of
travel and mobility. It protects us from the rain, it provides a large
amount of storage space, seats four or more, and is nearly effortless. Utter
luxury. A luxury that can not last much longer.
Our cars use up about 33%-50% of urban land. Cars are the leading source of air pollution and second largest source of carbon dioxide emissions in the world. Cars have a devesting impact on the economy of small businesses and downtowns. The personal financial cost of an automobile is huge -- in the US, one quarter of a person's income is spent on cars. This doesn't even include the massive subsidies enjoyed by car owners, paid in big part through taxes. Cars have a negative impact on a person's life in the form of wasted time, traffic jams, personal isolation, road rage and more. The political costs are huge too -- oil supplies are running out and the biggest reserves are left in the politically unstable Middle East.
The land consumed for accommodate automobiles exceeds the amount consumed for housing. Worldwide 33% of urban land is used for cars, while it is 50% in the US.
Cars need lots of space for roads and parking lots. But it goes further than that. Land is also consumed for gas station, refineries, oil fields, autoshops, car dealerships and more.
Sprawl multiples the problem. Not living close enough to work, to places to buy necessities and other locations has caused many people to be become dependant on an automobile. In the US, where the car problem is at its worst in the world, policies have encouraged motor vechiles over other forms of transportation. For example, development codes have separated residenital space from business space.
- Free parking: encourages huge shopping malls & strip malls with huge
parking lots. Encourages drive-throughs that exist at coffee shops, fast
food restaurants, banks
- Cheap gas: If the price of gas is less than public
transit, people are not likely to use public transit, enough though public transit
costs much less.
- Sprawl makes public transporation too costly to work.
If the population density is low enough, the pollution from public transporation
can be greater than cars.
Bicycles use 1/30 the space that cars use.
Increasing population makes traffic congestion a huge problem. In some areas it can be faster to get around by bicycle than cars. Yet
Cars are fueled by gasoline -- a non-renewable resource derived from oil, a fossil fuel, that is running out. Although the world never totally run out of oil, most of the easily obtained oil has already been spent. Oil production is predicted to peak as early as in 2010 and natural gas in 2020. After that oil will become increasingly difficult to produce and its price will continue to rise. The effects on the global economy will be horrendous. Transported goods, particularly food, will become more expensive. Our system of agriculture depends upon XXX. If food should get expensive enough, famines are rich countries such as the United States are possible. Falling back on older less productive means of agriculture may not be an option.
When these fossil fuels run out, other more dirty fossil fuels can be used. If allowed, this reverses the trend towards cleaner fossil fuels that emit less carbon dioxide when burnt. Carbon dioxide is the leading component of global warming. Dirty fuels will accelerate global warming by an unbelievable amount.
Transportation uses 25% of the world's oil. This is a significant porportion and accerlerates the rate oil is running out. The political price for obtaining oil supplies is expensive. Most of the remaining reserves are in the politically unstable Middle East.
A solution for much of the oil problem is to change our cars to hydrogen powered cars. Hydrogen is convenient way of storing power. Hydrogen is best extracted by electrolysis from renewable power sources. Solar, wind, small hydro, biomass, geothermal and other renewable power sources would supply the power to separate water into hydrogen and oxygen. It is currently cheaper to obtain hydrogen from natural gas, but natural gas is a fossil fuel that will run out. Hydrogen's advantage is it is clean burning. It produces clean water as a waste product. Hydrogen-powered cars will not contribute to global warming, and dramatically our dependence on oil from the politically unstable Middle East. Making hydrogen-powered cars will be very difficult to do. The costs of driving a hydrogen-powered car from renewable sources is very high right now. A global effort is needed to reduce the costs and solve many of the technical problems.
But the problems of the car go deeper than the fuel it runs on.
Copyright 2004, Brent Turcotte. All rights reserved. See Disclaimer and Copyright notice.