What weeds? I just see fun.
I have found owning and running a car has always been an expensive business. A time consuming affair as well. For me, keeping the car on the road has always felt very much like keeping the lawns mown and the hedge trimmed. There are so many other more important things I would rather be doing.
My family have only ever had one car. To have a second car would just double the expense and hassle. Sharing a single car seems to work fine. We are able to mix and match all the transport options. Car, bicycle, public transport, car pooling. I would love to explore the possibility of doing a car share scheme with our neighbour.
In contrast, I’m starting to notice a number of parents purchasing a car for the teenagers in their household. Is car ownership in NZ that cheap and accessible? It seems to sum up New Zealand’s ‘Car is King’ transport culture. It comes as no surprise that cities with a strong cycling culture also have significantly higher costs associated with driving and car ownership.
If it feels like it’s costing you and arm and a leg to keep your car on the road, here is some research to suggest you are not imaging it. How would you feel about working for 2 hours a day to pay for your car?
And these are just the financial costs to the individual. It ignores the environmental and social costs. According to this article in the NZ Herald, thanks to our addiction to motor vehicles, 3000 people in the world are killed every day and 10 times that are seriously injured.
I am really hoping that our Auckland of the future will provide us with something much better than what we currently have. Congratulations to Len Brown for giving it a go. Success is far from guaranteed, however. While the Mayor of Auckland is looking for alternatives, national politics is resisting. Does Steven Joyce really believe that more roads is the best for Auckland? I am hoping that there will be some unity in defeating the evil empire.
Cycling-the non-vehicular way.
I know, right! Try coming at it from the other side like I do. We don't own a car and for the life of me I can never understand why someone would voluntarily commit themselves to giving that much money away every month – day in day out, just ripping up notes. I went with a colleague on a business trip a few weeks ago and couldn't believe all the babysitting involved with bringing along a car – we had to drive round and round to find somewhere to put it, then there was all the drama and time devoted to buying the correct ticket, then there was the endless conversation about how much it had cost, then presumably there was an expense claim to fill in, then we even had to walk quite a way to the meeting, then the meeting was constantly interrupted by what time it was (because of the ticket) then the inevitable dash to refresh the ticket – It was exhausting and we hadn't even got half way through the morning! We could have done the whole thing easily on the bus and I could have been there and back in no time on my bike. The cost of this trip would easily have been $50 with parking and petrol – why do people do it? Habit? Fear of the unknown?
May be it's the 'creatures of habit' factor. Our addiction to cars really does defy logic in so many ways.
Definitely an overuse of the car, recently went back down country to see the folks and the front consisted of the following, Dad's car, mum's car, brother's car, brothers girlfriends car, my own car, and the old mans project car lurking around out back. car use to the point that my brother drives to school yet for years rode the same route, simply driving for driving's sake, thats the essence of the problem
I'm certainly not anti-car but it is becoming more obvious to me that our love affair with them is becoming detrimental in so many ways.