Freedom

20-25 years ago, a friend who just turned 18 shared how he was about to buy a car. “Ok, but why?” – I asked. “It’s freedom”. It struck me as absurd. This was the first time I heard it but I kept hearing it over the years. How’s this giving freedom, given how much of an investment, costs, space, and maintenance it needs?

But I kept hearing it, and at some point my 9yo kid shared that he saves for a car. I wanted to understand and started thinking.

So here are my theories on why people associate cars with freedom.

• Little kids. We drive them everywhere because our car-first cities don’t make it particularly easy to do things while you have little ones with you. In case you walk, they will resist, want to be carried, and to be back home. If you put the seat belt on, they have nowhere to run – they come with you. From the parents’ point of view, it’s the freedom to do things with kids, like shopping, that would otherwise not be possible. From kids’ point of view, they’re the ones who go to places they don’t particularly like while locked to their seats. The car is controlling what they do and where they go. Owning a car is the actual freedom statement from the parents. So transporting kids provides two plausible theories combined in one.

• Independence. Close to freedom. Using any form of transportation that you don’t own makes you dependent on other people – taxi drivers, bus drivers, train schedules, and airplane schedules. You don’t need to go very far to experience being locked in an airport with flights delayed or canceled, or to board a shady taxi where you don’t feel safe.

I was torn between the two for some time, but after spending several months somewhat car-free, I now lean toward a third explanation. It comes from this:

(image credit – Cycling Promotion Fund (CPF) Canberra)

69 people on a bus make it a full bus, and people are very close to each other. Same people in cars would be separated from the others with a wall made of glass and steel. So I think we pay all that money to not be bothered by others, then lose our ability to walk and get addicted to cars the same way we get addicted to nicotine. It becomes impossible to do things otherwise.

Understandable intent, bad results.

I’ll keep thinking and exploring the subject.