Car Culture vs. Community

Canada and the United States share many cultural values and practices but perhaps no one element of those cultures has influenced the whole like the car. The ability to easily travel long distances quickly comfortably and economically has lead to a mobility of people, goods and ideas as never before in history. This has allowed such great nations to expand rapidly and create great wealth as well, but at what cost?

For as much as europeans and many asians also love their cars, no where has the car culture dominated like it has in North America. For many in Europe and most other places in the world, a private vehicle is little more than a dream due to the high costs of the vehicles themselves and the costs to operate and maintain them.

If the majority of the world's population cannot afford to pay the cost of a car I have to ask, what has been the true cost of the automobile for those of us who are able to afford one or more? What has been the cost of our auto obsession to American society?

Most places in the world travel is by animal or some form of mass transit. Passenger bus and rail services dominate in most countries but for North America. As a result, most Americans, with the small exception of air travelers, travel alone to their destinations increasing their isolation from one another. In most of the world the majority of people either still live where they were born and raised. Neighbours know each other and have done so for generations. The mobility afforded to Americans by the automobile has dispersed families and neighbours so much in the last century that I don't think many people have the sense of community that their parents and grandparents had.

What would our country look like and what would we look like if we too had to rely on affordable mass transit because we could no longer afford to have private vehicles. Would we have a stronger sense of community? Would we be less independent as individuals and more interdependent on each other to survive? I don't know but it is a question worth asking. Again, what has been the true cost of having an automobile culture?