Roadkill: Unveiling The True Cost of Our Toxic Relationship with Cars

Blurb

Explore the financial, social, ethical, and environmental impacts of our obsession with, and dependency on, cars. Learn how to change the way we use them.

Roadkill: Unveiling the True Cost of Our Toxic Relationship with Cars, by Henrietta Moore and Arthur Kay, discusses the philosophical implications of car culture, as well as the practical impacts it has on your money, your taxes, your neighborhood, your planet, your health, and your happiness.

The car has been marketed as a symbol of freedom. The authors convincingly argue that it has actually hemmed in our cities and incrementally restricted our choices. How can we break free from our toxic relationship with cars?

Henrietta and Arthur offer a new way of thinking that promises to multiply your choices, improve your city, and expand your freedoms. Roadkill is a persuasive and illuminating call to action for city dwellers, environmentalists, and policymakers — anyone interested in practical ways to improve your life and expand your freedoms.

Inside the book:

• Jaw-dropping, real-world examples of the human and monetary costs imposed by cars, including the fact that cars have killed 60 to 80 million people since their invention, more than the deaths of WWI and WWII combined.
• Philosophical arguments explaining how car-centric cities restrict the freedoms of drivers and non-drivers alike.
• A catalogue of ideas and approaches for urban designers, transport planners, policymakers, and mayors.
• Practical recommendations for all contexts: for you, your family, your neighborhood, your town or city, and your national government.
• Critiques of the myths around electric cars and autonomous cars, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the implications of this emerging frontier.
• Ideas on how we can re-frame our relationship with the car? The authors recognize they can be useful machines, when used intentionally, and thoughtfully invited into our lives.
• Over 45 figures, original illustrations, diagrams, and colour photographs.

Light at the End of the Tunnel

This is a book for you whether you love cars or loathe them; desire one or have decided to have nothing to do with them; are excited by iconic brands or just spend your time worrying about whether the wheels will stay on.

As you read this, over a billion cars are stationary. They are taking us nowhere. If they are not stuck in a traffic jam, or parked on the side of the road, or lined up like colored ribbons in parking lots, or waiting in garages for their owners to decide to go out, or piled one on top of the other in a junk yard, or queuing for entry to some metropolis, or stopped at traffic signals, then a small number of them will be accelerating along an open road. The imaginative life of the car has it always in movement, but the reality is different.

Our cars are trapped. And we are trapped in our cars. And trapped in our thinking about cars.

This is not for lack of information. Most books about cars lay out their many harms. Most of these have been known from day one. Car safety concerns were vocalized as soon as the car was invented. Cars directly or indirectly cause 1 out of 34 deaths annually, and approximately 102 million people are injured each year in car crashes. Around 50 million are seriously injured, often leading to lifelong disabilities. That's roughly the population of Texas and New York State, combined. Since their invention, it's been estimated that they directly killed 60–80 million people, comparable to the

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Hazardous traffic: The early years

The very first gasoline-powered vehicle driven on the streets of Detroit was built by engineer Charles Brady King in 1896. It went as fast as 20 miles per hour, which was described in the newspaper as tearing along the street at a lively rate, dodging people and teams.

The transition from the horse age to the motorized age would prove to be very dangerous. At first speeding vehicles were not a big problem, with only a few of them on Detroit streets, but the situation grew serious quickly.

Time and Money

Ramit Sethi is author of the best-selling book I Will Teach You to Be Rich.1 His message is simple—through introspection you can work out what is important to you and what is not. Then use your money intentionally, “spend extravagantly on the things that you love,” he exclaims, “as long as you cut mercilessly on the things that you don't.” It seems so obvious. He calls this your “rich life.” Importantly, this will be very different from the “rich life” of your friends, family, or colleagues. Sethi asks us to select which positive freedoms form part of your “rich life.” Then he suggests you should use your money intentionally to make that a reality over time. Put your money into things that are important to you, and to be highly intentional in doing so. But, just as important, you must be ruthless in taking your money away from things that are not important to you.

Cars are the most successful product ever. They have molded our lives around them. Ninety-one percent of Americans drive a car, with no sign that they will slow down anytime soon.2 The number of cars in the Global South is steadily rising.3 We love our cars and are quick to extol their many uses. And yet, for all their comfort and convenience, what are we forgoing for the pleasure of having a car? They are an opportunity cost. To own one also means freedoms foreclosed and foregone. Each of us should be informed about the true costs of owning a car. Once you know the numbers you can then decide. ...

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