by Ben Fried
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Automakers have been equating cars to “the national theme of freedom” for the better part of a century, so I think advocates for sustainable transportation and livable streets are well-served by flipping that argument on its head, as Carlson suggests. It’s not a tortured line of reasoning by any means. Generations of car-centric planning have, after all, yoked Americans to a transportation system that constrains the most basic elements of our lives — our time, our health, our finances, our ability to socialize with friends and neighbors.
In addition to liberating people from hellish commutes, as Carlson describes, reducing car-dependence means freedom from spending more and more of our household budgets on transportation; freedom from sedentary lifestyles that are contributing to skyrocketing rates of obesity and diabetes; freedom from worrying about the safety of walking or biking. Freedom, eventually, from having to extract and use oil in ways that pose catastrophic risks to the environment.
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https://streetsblog.net/2010/07/06/the-freedom-to-not-drive/oldId.20100707094631755
Biking in Baltimore