The Elephant in the Room

Could there be any more graphic illustration of what’s wrong with things than the images of those massive traffic jams of evacuees trying to leave Houston ahead of Hurricane Rita? Isn’t the elephant in the room here patently obvious? Can we finally lay the blame for current crises squarely at the foot—or should we say tires—of the clear culprit?

It’s the automobile, right? It’s the car, or perhaps more appropriately, our ongoing love affair with this that’s causing all these problems, isn’t it?

Think of everything that’s wrong with the world. How many of these problems are caused—of at the very least, exacerbated—by cars?

Air pollution, environmental degradation, global warming, war in the Middle East, the decline of civil society, obesity, the rising cost of health care, you name it: each and every one of these has been precipitated by, (or again, at least made worse) by the presence of, and our reliance upon the automobile. If it weren’t for cars, our air would be cleaner, our planet would be greener, we’d live in a more peaceful, harmonious society, and most us would be much thinner and healthier.

This isn’t to deny that cars are at the foundation of many excellent things. Drive-in movie theaters are one. Demolition derbies are another. And certainly, the leisure-filled lifestyle that may of us enjoy would not be possible without cars.

And of course, we could still have busses and trucks, planes and trains to move our stuff and transport us great distances.

But just imagine what the world would be like if, instead of single-occupancy internal combustion engine-powered steel and plastic petroleum guzzlers all around us, society was dependent on human-powered (and perhaps solar- or electric-assisted) vehicles. Wouldn’t it be delightful to see rows and rows of bicycles, tricycles, quadricycles, and other multicycles gliding down the highways of Houston ahead of the hurricane?

Now that is one storm I’d love to be in the middle of.