Carbusters #38
Table of contents + -

Choose section: 

Note: Only the editors' introduction and selected articles and sections are published immediately on the web; all feature articles are put online after about three months. You can subscribe to our magazine or buy a single copy online via credit card or by filling out a subscription form and sending it in with cash or a check.

End of the Road?

Is there a future for the auto industry? Has the car culture reached the end of the road? Simply, is this the end? Indeed, these questions are on the lips of many people.

No one can avoid the news: this is one of the most tumultuous times on record for the global financial markets. With the global economy in freefall, the auto industry is facing turbulent times. In an effort to avert a depression in the car industry, governments are spending billions of dollars to kick-start economic growth in the form of ‘bailout’ loans for carmakers. As many enjoy government largesse, it is clear, however, that something is up – with hefty job cuts, reduction or halt in production and growing stockpiles of unsold cars – even mighty injections of cash into carmakers engines, the problems are deep and probably irreversible. Combined with global issues such as climate change and peak oil reaching boiling point, the reality is that the cars day as our primary mode of transport is likely over as people now explore the alternatives.

The economic crisis gives us an ideal opportunity to re-evaluate how we should choose to travel. If we are not doing it already, let’s use the worse times to make a new start. No matter how we do it, we can all make a difference and act upon what we believe: to be carfree. Choosing to walk, cycle or skate, and using the bus, tram, train, or rickshaw – the alternatives make sense: economically, socially and environmentally. Further, cars are the unhealthy choice according to Doctor David Haslam’s diagnosis and Cat Chappell prescribes the active remedies: walking and cycling (page 16). Groningen is a city that has followed doctor’s orders, and by taking a historical tour we see how it has become the world’s number one cycling city.

Fighting against the use of cars can leave us with emotions of deepest, darkest despair, but there is a lot going on at the moment to fill us with brilliant, bright optimism. In this issue there are many things to leave you feeling optimistic for the future. Looking at the situation from the perspective of low-income countries, although there are many more problems than growing car-dependency, Debra Efroymson shows us that carfree culture has the potential to flourish in the future.

Making green choices is not always about saving the planet; it’s also about taking social responsibility and enjoying twenty-first century life to the fullest. If more people opted for public transport, walking or cycling than driving, then communities would be healthier, probably happier and would have a lighter impact on the environment. But before, it is important to provide a solid basis for carfree living, which empowers people to do it together. In the first of a new regular column, Joel Crawford takes us through what needs to be done to make today’s cities carfree in ‘Carfree Conversions’.

Physically redesigning urban spaces, encouraging cars to slow down and opening up more social spaces, is a permanent solution for making our towns and cities carfree. There are new and existing ways of doing this. Urban designers are now looking to New Urbanism, which draws on existing examples to create carfree places as Andy Kunz discusses (page 14). Eco-towns are presented as low-cost, low-carbon, scaled-down community spaces – effective at slowing and removing the car. Bruce Stutz further investigates new and existing eco-town developments, as well as their potential to tackle a growing urban sprawl.

It is clear that now is the time to get some critical mass behind the idea of change and get new ideas into the discourse. In this issue we explore what it’s going to take to get us from where we are now to where we want to be…

Jane Harding

Top  |  Print article

Send a letter to the editor: editors@carbusters.org