Creative Destruction

Share this post

Visualizing Car Centricity

www.creativedestruction.club

Discover more from Creative Destruction

Thought-provoking ideas and perspectives for a better world, every Wednesday. Read by innovators, idea-seekers and changemakers.
Over 2,000 subscribers
Continue reading
Sign in

Visualizing Car Centricity

A visual exploration of the dominance of cars in our cities

Thomas Klaffke
Mar 30, 2022
2
Share this post

Visualizing Car Centricity

www.creativedestruction.club
1
Share

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?

Twitter avatar for @fietsprofessor
Cycling Professor 🚲 @fietsprofessor
'Alexa, please give me a visual metaphor for the status of cycling infrastructure in the United States' ~Chicago bike path next to an 8 lane road for cars during a storm.
2:04 PM ∙ Mar 4, 2022
3,851Likes795Retweets
No alternative text description for this image
Bild
Twitter avatar for @fietsprofessor
Cycling Professor 🚲 @fietsprofessor
What have we done?
Image
11:08 AM ∙ Mar 7, 2022
1,106Likes201Retweets

“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’

Twitter avatar for @ModeledBehavior
Adam Ozimek @ModeledBehavior
Spending $40,000 on a car seems like the kind of thing to me that, intuitively, you do when you have like a couple million in wealth and make $400,000 a year. But absolutely normal people do it all the time! Blows me away
7:24 PM ∙ Sep 7, 2020
18,002Likes1,313Retweets

Coronavirus Pandemic Causes Climate Of Anxiety And Changing Routines In America
Parking lot in California

“America’s 250 million cars are oversupplied with an estimated 2 billion parking spots yet spend 95% of their time going nowhere.” - Forbes

Twitter avatar for @urbanthoughts11
21st Century City @urbanthoughts11
Stadiums are a great study of how little space people take up and how much space their cars need
Image
9:11 PM ∙ Dec 26, 2021
50,124Likes9,933Retweets
Bild
Elementary school in California for 700 kids….and its parking lot
Twitter avatar for @LiorSteinberg
Lior Steinberg @LiorSteinberg
One of the greatest achievements of the car industry is convincing business owners that parking spaces lead to more revenue. By @UrbisAustralia
Image
2:21 PM ∙ Mar 24, 2022
313Likes137Retweets
Bild
“Cargo bikes take up space on the sidewalk…” 🤡
Twitter avatar for @urbanthoughts11
21st Century City @urbanthoughts11
1970: One more lane will fix it. 1980: One more lane will fix it. 1990: One more lane will fix it. 2000: One more lane will fix it. 2010: One more lane will fix it. 2020: ? via @avelezig
10:04 AM ∙ Nov 4, 2019
237,286Likes82,184Retweets
Twitter avatar for @paulg
Paul Graham @paulg
A freeway interchange near Atlanta and the center of Florence at the same scale.
Image
5:19 PM ∙ Aug 25, 2021
5,005Likes538Retweets
Twitter avatar for @chaotropicsalts
fastest hand in the west @chaotropicsalts
@bryanforall reddit info graphic that lives in my head all the time
Image
5:31 AM ∙ Mar 3, 2022
385Likes107Retweets
Twitter avatar for @alex_lee
Alex Lee 李天明 @alex_lee
EVs are the future of cars, but cars are not the future
4:23 AM ∙ Jan 16, 2022
15,104Likes1,822Retweets

We started this visual exploration with a reference to kids and civil obedience. Let’s end it with a kid and “civil disobedience”:

Twitter avatar for @fietsprofessor
Cycling Professor 🚲 @fietsprofessor
Park where you want: Boss level! 💯
11:10 AM ∙ Mar 14, 2022
2,715Likes445Retweets

Thanks and see you next week! 😉

Thomas

2
Share this post

Visualizing Car Centricity

www.creativedestruction.club
1
Share
Previous
Next
1 Comment
Share this discussion

Visualizing Car Centricity

www.creativedestruction.club
Matt Klein
Mar 30, 2022Liked by Thomas Klaffke

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.

Expand full comment
Reply
Share
Top
New
Community

No posts

Ready for more?

© 2023 Thomas Klaffke
Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start WritingGet the app
Substack is the home for great writing