Visualizing Car Centricity
A visual exploration of the dominance of cars in our cities
We’re back with another visual exploration. If you missed the consumer culture one, have a look here.
This time, I’ve gathered various visuals, graphs and a few stats to put into perspective the insane dominance of cars in our cities. One of the first things I, and many other children, have been taught, is this: “Look to the left, now to the right, again to the left. No car coming? Okay, then, and only then, you can cross the street”.
Why do kids have to fit into streets built for cars?
Why don’t cars fit into streets built for kids?
“Motorists underestimate the full private costs of car ownership, while policy makers and planners underestimate the social costs.
For the typical German travel distance of 15,000 car kilometers per year, the total lifetime cost of car ownership (50 years) ranges between €599,082 for an Opel Corsa to €956,798 for a Mercedes GLC.” - Gössling et al. 2022: ‘The lifetime cost of driving a car’
“America’s 250 million cars are oversupplied with an estimated 2 billion parking spots yet spend 95% of their time going nowhere.” - Forbes
We started this visual exploration with a reference to kids and civil obedience. Let’s end it with a kid and “civil disobedience”:
Thanks and see you next week! 😉
Thomas
I've always been indifferent to cars. It wasn't until living in Copenhagen, picking up cycling as a hobby and most recently living near the Lincoln Tunnel in NYC that I've realized the devastation that these things wreck on cities and psyches. Great hodgepodge of signals that capture my newfound sentiment.