You are currently browsing the tag archive for the ‘car’ tag.
On my ride into work this morning, I was surprised to see what appeared to be a small park located in a parking spot on Milwaukee Ave. After a bit of poking around on the internet, I learned that today is PARK(ing) Day, a day when all around the world, “artists, activists, and citizens collaborate to temporarily transform metered parking spots into “PARK(ing)” spaces: temporary public parks.” The project is a wonderful visual reminder of the need for more green public spaces, and even beyond that goal the project offers a small view at what a more car-free lifestyle could look like.
Industrialized societies throughout the world offer a tremendous amount of space for the use of the automobile – so much so that many no longer view this still relatively new infrastructure as a privileged transportation option, but as a necessity that must be a driving force (no pun intended) in all areas of development and city planning. Meanwhile, the increase of public transportation and the walkability of a community are forced to take a backseat to the free flow of automobile traffic despite the inefficiency of that means of transportation and the suffering sense of community that comes from such an individualized system.
What PARK(ing) Day points out to me is that there is huge potential in the vast spaces currently devoted to automobile culture to be transformed into something that would benefit communities not only through decreased air and noise pollution and city beautification, but through safer and more plentiful shared community areas in which more food could be grown and distributed locally, and which would increase the viability of local businesses as more people take the time to walk along their parkways to find local restaurant and retail alternatives for the chains to which they were previously driving.
Take a walk today and think about how areas currently devoted to individualization might be better used to foster community in your area. Slow down and be a part of the place you inhabit.
Each week I commute to work on my “Amsterdam” bike that was bought used last fall from a bike rental station in Millennium Park. I also use my dad’s twelve-year-old Saturn for weekly trips to the grocery store, out-of-town excursion, etc. While for many reasons I prefer riding my bike to my car, I’m not yet in a position to completely forgo the use of a personal automobile. So, though I limit the use of my car, I have two pre-owned vehicles that I maintain. In the past month, this has meant taking my car to the shop after a break in the exhaust pipe, and bringing my bike to the shop a couple times for broken spokes.
For the car, a broken exhaust pipe meant that every time I ran the car it was as if I had no muffler, so the car was incredibly loud and embarrassing to drive around town, and in no condition to get me back to Muskegon for a weekend trip. Getting it fixed meant that I had to leave work early to get to a trusted mechanic before they closed, and leaving the car overnight while the problem was diagnosed. A call came the next morning with a quote of somewhere near $600; I diverted the information to my dad, who knows more about the car than I do and was able to have them fix the most immediate problem for almost half of that. The car runs quieter now than it has before, but the other $300 worth of issues are still lurking in the undercarriage threatening further problems down the line.
For my bike, broken spokes meant a wobbly back wheel that could become dangerous to ride on for too extended periods of time. I was able to ride it to work, though I did avoid the prospect for a few days, and getting it fixed involved a quick trip to a trusted shop a few blocks from where I work, being able to explain the problem and understand what was needed myself, and picking it up about an hour and $20 later. I recently had a third spoke replaced this month, which could mean the rear rim is bent out of shape and that I might be needing to get the wheel re-built, a service that will cost around $150 and will completely fix the issue. It’s worth noting, though, that by riding my bike to work instead of taking the ‘el’, that $150 will be payed for by savings in two months’ time.
Now I realize that this comparison is not completely fair – I don’t use my bike to ride back to Muskegon for the weekend, for example, and a car is a much more complex machine that will require more specialized knowledge to understand and fix – but then doesn’t that bring about the question of how complex a tool we need for any particular task? I guess in the end I’m presenting this post as evidence of the benefits of using a simpler tool (the bike) for a simple task (traveling four-and-a-half miles) and saving the more complex tool, which requires more extensive repairs after the wear-and-tear of use, (the car) for use only when that tool is really needed.
