Carfree Seattle is but a small
part of the global carfree movement, an ongoing campaign aimed at making
automobiles obsolete in urban areas where population density favors mass
transit and other more efficient and environmentally friendly modes of
transportation, such as walking, bussing, cycling.
|Overuse of automobiles makes people
lazy and antisocial. It also fosters a dependence on oil resources which
has short-circuited America's foreign policy while totally screwing the
environment. Any move away from auto dependency is a step towards sanity
and sustainability. The future is in your hands. Your every action has an
impact. Carpool, ride mass transit, walk, bike. The phasing out of the automobile
is an evolutionary step.
Public expenditures on highways, roads, streets and traffic services average
$413 annually per capita in the Puget Sound region (PSRC, 1996). -
Local jurisdictions in WA, OR, & Idaho, spent almost $500 million from
property & other general taxes on roadwork in 1993. -_Tax Shift_, page
Washingtonians, for example, paid only 10 percent of the cost of interstate
highway construction in their state. -
Fuel taxes, vehicle registrations, and other user fees paid by Pacific Northwest
drivers fell at least $300 million short of covering highway construction
and maintenance costs in 1993.
Each car in greater Vancouver, for example, costs society an estimated Can
$2,700 per year beyond what its owner pays.
"Bicycles are sustainable wonders because of what they don't do to the world.
A bicyclist's breathing (the closest a bike comes to exhaust) doesn't acidify
the rain or kill people with carbon monoxide and particulates; neither does
it alter the global climate. A bicyclist fuels up on carbohydrates, not fossil
fuels and imported oil. Bicycles don't cause traffic jams or require paving
over whole landscapes at the expense of croplands, government coffers, and
livable neighborhoods. And bicycles are not the leading killer of Americans
and Canadians 2 to 24 years old or, worldwide, of men 15 to 44 years old.
That distinction is reserved for the automobile."
- John C. Ryan, Seven Wonders,
The paradox of our time in history is
that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers, wider freeways, but narrower
viewpoints. We spend more, but have less. We buy more, but enjoy less. -George