Do you ever get asked whether you own a car? I'm in my mid 20's and haven't ever owned a vehicle. I'm yet to complete my full driver's license. For me it's a mixture of environmental sensibility, laziness and the fact that I've lived in compact cities that are easy to navigate by foot, bike and public transport for most of my adult life. Despite this, I often come away from the question of whether or not I drive my own car feeling like something of a social pariah.
Sitting your first driving test on your fifteenth birthday was common practice when I was at school, with teenagers hungry to gain adult freedom as soon as they could in the form of driving. Parents often help their kids buy cars, or hand over keys to a new car as a birthday present when their teenagers turn sixteen or eighteen. Cars therefore have an ingrained association in Western society with adulthood, freedom and independence. Driving a fast, noisy or good-looking car is also supposed to have female admirers looking your way quicker than you can say 'accelerate'.
The status attached to driving a car isn't confined to Western developed countries however. An article I came across in The Guardian recently focused on the "four wheels good, two wheels bad" mantra in middle-class India that is turning the Indian population into a rapidly expanding car market. A Bengali market stall owner was quoted in the article as saying:
Wheels truly show your status. If I had a four-wheeler I would have better marriage prospects in my village, I would be respected. I have an old Honda motorbike, so I am looked down upon. To be able to afford a proper car, with four wheels, that would change my life, it would turn things around. - GuardianThe idea that a car enhances your social status is being milked by an Indian billionaire, Ratan Tata, who is planning to produce the world's cheapest car to meet the aspirations of the world's fastest-growing consumer markets. The car is being billed the 'People's car' or the 'Indian Mini' and is expected to be launched at the end of the year for about 100,000 Indian rupees (£1,200), half the cost of the cheapest car currently available, the Suzuki Maruti 800. Ford Motor Company in India also plans to make a small car for India while Honda and Volkswagen are expected to follow suit.
Environmentalists in India are worried about the impact widespread car ownership will have on already bad congestion in urban areas, under-resourced public transport systems, as well as poor air quality and rising greenhouse gas emissions. Anumita Roychowdhury, associate director of the Centre for Science and Environment in New Delhi believes that 'Once people start using cars it will be hard to get them back… selling cars for bottom dollar and encouraging banks to offer finance plans is a recipe for disaster. Tata reckons he will sell a million of these things a year. This will be an environmental disaster". Unfortunately, Tata's 'People's Car' is likely to be highly popular. "In the new India," says Roychowdhury, "four wheels has emotional, not just practical, appeal."
In an age of climate change, clogged cities, poor urban air quality and noise pollution, I think the status and normalcy attached to car ownership needs to shift. So too does a group of people I came across recently on Facebook, a social networking site popular amongst the 20-30 age bracket. Why Do You Own A Car indeed? (signup necessary).
September 22 is World Car Free Day. How about leaving your car in the garage on the 22nd, and see, as the website suggests, if you can go car-free for the day and then not stop?
As well as the tried and true alternatives to car travel such as walking, kids' walking to school buses, riding a push bike, an electric bike or a scooter, catching public transport or hitchhiking, there are also a range of alternatives for car use that avoid daily single-passenger journeys.
Create special 'car days' where you save up all the things you need to use a car for and complete them all in a single trip. Cutting multiple short car trips, most of them under 5km, will make a good dent in your emissions of CO2 and other harmful gases.
Pool your car trips – share your car journeys with work mates, neighbours and friends, or set up a roster with people you live close to. One car is better than five. In some parts of the world, you'll get to travel in the fast lane only if you have multiple passengers. Internet sites can also help you connect with other people who want to share rides. Try shareAcar or SharetheCar in the UK, or ShareMyCar in Australia as starters.
Sell you family's second car and combine trips in your one car, as well as encouraging family members to bike, walk and use public transport.
Join up to a car share company. In Australia, Flexicar offer a great service where you book to use a car online and then swipe your electronic membership card to open a car that's parked in convenient suburban locations. In the US, car share company Zipcar is located in nine cities as well as Vancouver. In the UK, check out the Car Share Company, Streetcar or City Car Club.
Driving a car is rarely essential, and it's certainly not going to make you a better person. Getting out of a car and exercising as you get to places will even be good for your health. Research carried out by the Institute for European Environmental Policy shows that in the past 30 years the amount of time people in the UK spend walking has decreased from 67 hours per year to 47 hours, while time spent driving has increased from 91 hours to 151 hours per driver per year ('You don't need that unhealthy, dirty car', The Guardian).
Instead of parents buying their kids a car as an initiation into adulthood and freedom, how about a gift that will help shape their life – as well as the planet's – more positively? A new bike or membership to a car share company perhaps?
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