L.A. girl Kathryn Pope has a goal for 2008: To get rid of her car entirely by June! Follow her de-car-ing adventures.
Maybe it's because I'm a woman. Maybe it's because I'm barely 5 feet tall. Maybe it's because I never quite lost my baby face from childhood. Whatever it is, when I tell people that I'm going car-free (riding the bus, biking, using the scooter), I often get what I call the "safety reaction."
"Oh no! You're going alone?"
"I had a friend who was mugged once. You could be mugged."
"You're just so vulnerable without a car."
The safety reaction comes out of concern and care, and I appreciate knowing that people in my life are concerned about me. I also understand that many people (especially women) think carefully about personal safety. The number of women who are abused by family, friends and strangers is shocking, and I know it's hard to look at the world from a fearless place, with all the fearful stories we hear. Still, this fear of car-free transportation (and especially bus-riding) is harmful, both to women and those who are often stereotyped when we react fearfully.
I didn't grow up riding the bus, so my public transit experience was limited when I hit adulthood. Since then, I've ridden public transit often (not just in L.A., but in New York, Las Vegas, Vancouver, Chicago, rural Mexico, urban Korea, New York, Seattle). The first time I rode a city bus, it was kind of scary. It felt so public and risky, compared to my trusty car.
The irony, though, is that driving a car doesn't necessarily keep us safe.
About 115 people die each day in car accidents in the U.S. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, there are about 43,000 people killed and about 2.9 million people injured each year in car accidents. Drivers and passengers account for around 37,500 of those deaths, while pedestrian and cyclist deaths only account for around 5,500. Of course, there are more drivers and passengers on the road than pedestrians and cyclists, but the numbers do show that cars aren't exactly havens of safety.
And what about crimes that somehow involve cars? I think of car theft, carjacking, the creepy feeling I get in parking structures (day or night), but also the shocking rates of crime at gas stations, in Wal-Mart parking lots, and even inside our cars, with the string of freeway shootings this year and last. It seems that we may not be safe from crime and accident in our cars.
Then why do cars feel safer?
Still, the idea persists that we're all safer when we're driving than we are when taking the bus, biking, or using some other method of transit. In a car, we can lock the doors. We navigate the steering wheel. We feel in control. I don't have to be in public if I drive. I can carry my private space with me. This creates an illusion of safety. According to Winifred Gallagher, who writes about the psychology of home, this feeling of refuge is psychologically comforting, especially for women. It's no wonder then, that we feel safer, somehow, in our cars. Cars feel like a refuge from the city, even when that refuge is an illusion.
Cars make our neighborhoods less safe too.
When everyone is driving, fewer people are walking and biking in our neighborhoods. The fewer the people around, the more we're tucked away in cars and houses, and the more deserted our neighborhoods, the more crime there is. I feel safer when I see my neighbors outside, walking their dogs, carrying groceries, complaining about the Hummer limos at the business at the end of the block. And I feel doubly safe when I start to recognize the people, wave to them, and smile. When I can see a person walking by, no matter what race, gender, age, or sense of fashion, and nod or wave instead of wondering if I'll safely pass, this is true safety.
So what do we do?
It's important to notice that our instinctive reaction to fear is to isolate ourselves in our cars and homes -- and that the true solution is not isolation. Going out without a car helps us (especially women) feel and be more free in the world (anyone remember the "Take back the Night" campaign?) -- and it helps to create a world of walkers and bikers, to begin creating community in our neighborhoods and cities. It can't happen overnight, but I think it can happen, and each trip we take without a car, we speed up the process.
Recently, the students in one of my classes, upon learning that I don't come to school with a car, began the safety reaction. Stories began circulating about women who had been mugged, hurt, or worse. Statistics were recited. Then, the only man in the class, a Vietnam veteran, finally spoke. "Some people I worry about," he said, "but I'm not worried about you at all, because you're not afraid. You'll do all right."
I think we can all do all right and feel safe, if we give it a try.
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An update: June has arrived, and I'm finally ready to sell my car and become officially car-free. Thank you, everyone, for the motivation and inspiration to keep going with my car-free experiment over the past few months!
Photo by Michael Shaw
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