What we lose when cars silence the neigbourhoods

 

 

Translated from Esperanto, original article can be found at Esperenta Retradio

What we lose when cars silence the neighbourhoods

When we criticise cars, the conversation typically focuses on issues of pollution, accidents and the vast amount of space occupied by cars in cities. These are all true and important consequences of car dominated societies, but there is still another problem which is discussed far less often. Cars do not just change the air and the streets, they also change relations between people. The car makes our lives more isolated, more closed off and less human.

When we travel on foot or by bicycle, or using public transport we see the world differently. We notice the vendors at the street corners. We meet familiar faces, we muddle through a conversation with a neighbour, we see children playing, dogs walking and people sitting on park benches. Even a short trip can become a small social experience. But, in a private car we sit alone or nearly alone encased in a metal box apart from the surrounding life. We travel through places but are not really among them. 

Of course cars have their uses. They can be very useful for long journeys or for people with mobility issues, and there are places where there is simply no available alternative. The issue is not the existence of the automobile. The problem is that in most of North America we have built our cities and our customs in a way that centres the car at the expense of everything else. That is why we have neighbourhoods where it is extremely difficult to reach shops, schools, cafés etc, without using a vehicle.  We have wide roads, vast car parks and places where to walk is to feel like an uninvited guest. 

 When everything is divided, the people too are divided. If you never meet your neighbours except through a windscreen then it becomes difficult to know them, to trust them, to feel yourself as part of a common life. That lose is difficult to measure, but very real. We not only lose convenient conversations but also the small networks of regular human contacts that help us feel secure and connected to a place.

 And when that network withers the consequences can be more serious than we imagine. Loneliness grows, mistrust grows, people feel abandoned and invisible. In this atmosphere society as a whole becomes more fragile. It becomes easier to anger, to cast blame, to surrender to hate. It is not possible to say what our modern world would be like without the logic of the car. But is clear that we lose a lot when we replace real connections with unending traffic. 

Perhaps the most important question is also the simplest. How can we rebuild our community into a place where people do not just live but also truly live together? The answer to this question could helps us rebuild our shattered society.