Having been marketed as a status symbol for class and wealth almost as soon as its invention, car ownership, almost more so than home ownership, has become the definition of The American Dream. The open road has become so synonymous with self-discovery and modern day Manifest Destiny that cars are literally equated with freedom. Cars have become so ingrained in our everyday psyche that they are considered an indication of personality, and people will almost always choose to drive even if it’s the least rational option.

The love of cars—buying cars, driving cars, owning cars—is so absolute that our communities were designed to accommodate them. As a result of this poor planning and prioritizing, there are now 40 million miles of roadway—that’s more than 80 trips to the moon and back—to accommodate the more than 1 billion cars on the planet.

Here are some ridiculous-but-true facts to illustrate the impact that the world’s love of cars has had on our communities and our planet:

According to a recent study, there are only two big patches of intact forest left on earth thanks to worldwide road construction.
Habitat fragmentation can be a death sentence for ecosystems, as areas cut off by roadways lose an average of half of all species within twenty years. The greatest impacts are seen in areas closest to habitat edges. As of now, scientists estimate that more than 70 percent of the world’s forest ecosystems lie within a kilometer of an edge, and with some estimating that the world will see more than 15 million miles of new paved roads by mid-century, the outlook is bleak for these fragile systems.

Manhattan’s traffic congestion was so bad in the 1920s that there were several entirely serious proposals to pave the Hudson River to build more parking and roadways.
You may laugh at the ridiculousness of these proposals, but keep in mind that many major U.S. cities have squandered ample waterfront access by concentrating warehouses, parking and highway overpasses in these areas. Camden, NJ’s waterfront “parking crater” recently won Streetsblog’s 2015 Parking Madness award, and advocates in cities like the Bronx, Albany, NY and Trenton, NJ have been working hard for years to reclaim their waterfront spaces for recreational use.

Drivers are treated to free rides, extra lanes and cheap gas while infrastructure and transit funding suffer.
The transportation sector is the second largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States, and passenger cars, pick-up trucks, minivans and SUVs account for more than half of all transportation emissions. The EPA recommends walking, biking and public transportation to reduce car travel: “Leaving your car at home just two days a week can reduce your greenhouse gas emissions by an average of two tons per year.”

Yet, in New Jersey, a state where one third of all bridges are deficient and one third of all traffic fatalities are bicyclists or pedestrians, elected officials would rather continue to rely on debt and transit fare hikes than raise the nation’s second lowest gas tax. Is it any surprise the transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the Garden State?

And across the river in New York, where 75 percent of the NYC metro region’s total population and 90 percent of its working population use mass transit and ridership is skyrocketing, dedicated bus lanes are considered a “lack of respect” to drivers, and elected officials continue to divert mass transit funding and decry attempts to toll river crossings in the face of $33 billion in unfunded mass transit capital needs.

Free parking is prized above all else.
Parking lots are a terrible use of land. In addition to being an eyesore, they trap a lot of heat and by not absorbing rainwater they contribute to flooding and groundwater issues in local environments—two factors that can greatly exacerbate the rising temperatures and bad flooding many cities have seen in recent years. It’s estimated that there are three nonresidential parking spaces for every car in America, which amounts to about 4,360 square miles of pavement—an area larger than Puerto Rico—but in reality it’s so unregulated and so prolific that no one really knows how much parking there is in the world.

In New York City, where housing is expensive, but residential curbside parking is free, a fight to reduce minimum parking requirements in new development is brewing. But while Manhattan has seen several recent common-sense developments where heat-trapping parking lots and polluting gas stations have been converted to housing, Queens and Brooklyn are far behind, and other communities around the country are still fighting an uphill battle to rid themselves of heat-trapping, groundwater-polluting parking lots and gas stations.

The Tri-State Transportation Campaign is a 501(c)(3) non-profit advocacy organization dedicated to reducing car dependency in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. Your continued support allows us to continue to advocate for a more environmentally friendly, economically efficient and socially just transportation system, as well as to offer a free online publication, Mobilizing the Region, read by thousands of elected officials, planners, industry professionals and commuters.
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