Hole in the Wall
The Car Is King
RECEIVED Tue., June 29, 2010
Dear Editor,
Contrary to what many car drivers believe, we all pay heavily to subsidize cars, roads, and parking lots. Property taxes, sales taxes, and bonds pay for roads and parking lots, even though many very expensive roads are restricted to motor vehicles and form barriers to progress for people on foot, on bicycles, and in wheelchairs. The U.S. government uses our tax money to subsidize oil, to keep it cheap for car drivers and airlines. We all pay for the oil spills, the oil wars, the pollution, the deadly streets. Every year, at least one-fourth of the people killed by cars are pedestrians. A disabled man lying in bed indoors was recently run over and killed by a car in Austin. Two women standing on a sidewalk at a bus stop were killed by a car in February. The bus stop was demolished. Who pays? We all pay, and only some benefit.
A hundred years ago, people wrote of the pleasures of walking, of “the democracy of the road,” of the same camaraderie and equality among all road users, including pedestrians. All that is gone. The car is king, and the king kills and maims the people. The king has made people afraid to walk in the streets. That's why sidewalks were invented. But the king consumes so much of everyone's money that our city leaders say that we can't afford sidewalks.
Whatever happened to walking – the free, clean, satisfying mode of transportation by which our ancestors migrated across continents? The king killed it. The king will kill us all, if we don't come to our senses soon.
Contrary to what many car drivers believe, we all pay heavily to subsidize cars, roads, and parking lots. Property taxes, sales taxes, and bonds pay for roads and parking lots, even though many very expensive roads are restricted to motor vehicles and form barriers to progress for people on foot, on bicycles, and in wheelchairs. The U.S. government uses our tax money to subsidize oil, to keep it cheap for car drivers and airlines. We all pay for the oil spills, the oil wars, the pollution, the deadly streets. Every year, at least one-fourth of the people killed by cars are pedestrians. A disabled man lying in bed indoors was recently run over and killed by a car in Austin. Two women standing on a sidewalk at a bus stop were killed by a car in February. The bus stop was demolished. Who pays? We all pay, and only some benefit.
A hundred years ago, people wrote of the pleasures of walking, of “the democracy of the road,” of the same camaraderie and equality among all road users, including pedestrians. All that is gone. The car is king, and the king kills and maims the people. The king has made people afraid to walk in the streets. That's why sidewalks were invented. But the king consumes so much of everyone's money that our city leaders say that we can't afford sidewalks.
Whatever happened to walking – the free, clean, satisfying mode of transportation by which our ancestors migrated across continents? The king killed it. The king will kill us all, if we don't come to our senses soon.
Yours truly,
Amy Babich
Amy Babich