“I’ll need the car at 1:30pm and then I’ll be going out of town tonight.”
Ah, you can’t do that! Now I’m stuck. I’m here visiting my parents in the suburbs of Detroit and without a car, I can’t go anywhere. I mean, I can go places but it is by walking or by taxi/Lyft/Uber.
I got so frustrated I left the house. My sister said that she’d give me a ride to the coffee shop, but at the moment, she couldn’t because our mom was still out with the car. In the fit of frustration, I wasn’t about to wait 15 minutes for the car, I’d rather walk 30 minutes by myself. That ironically seems to be how frustration works.
Along the walk, I started to think about what was really causing the frustration. Was I pissed that my sister didn’t tell me that not only was she gonna take the car, but she was gonna take it for the whole night?! Was I annoyed that I didn’t have my own car back here, where I could have freedom to go as I please? Was I ticked off that the city seemed to have few if any local bus routes?
Yes, all of those and more. As I was walking I realized there was a deeper frustration, one that seems to irk me over and over. I believe we live in a society that puts cars first and I wish we lived in one that put humans first.
In a car-first society, stores are very far apart and parking lots are huge. In a human-first society, stores are close together and parking lots, if they exist, are small and manageable.
In a car-first society, machines exhale carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, and other compounds, and inhale oxygen (you need oxygen to create fire in internal combustion) and actually, I wonder if they breathe more oxygen than humans. I never thought about it like this–cars and humans may be competing for oxygen in the environment, and I imagine cars are probably much bigger gobblers than us, especially considering many of us don’t seem to breathe deeply. In a human-first society, humans exhale carbon dioxide and inhale oxygen.
In a car-first society, cars have the right of way and humans have to cross at designated right angles at designated times. In a human-first society, humans walk as they please, to and fro, taking shortcuts and meanderings.
In a car-first society, living beings are uprooted to make space for roads. In a human-first society, roads are uprooted to make space for living beings.
In a car-first society, carbon monoxide is a byproduct. In a human-first society, carbon monoxide is a poison.
In a car-first society, being sleepy leads to death. In a human-first society, being sleepy leads to sleep.
In a car-first society, paths are hard. In a human-first society, paths are soft.
In a car-first society, neighbors dwell far from each other. In a human-first society, neighbors dwell near each other (the etymology of neighbor is actually “near dweller”).
Ok, I think you get the point. What kinds of decisions, behaviors, interactions, relationships, and other events would we see in a world where instead of putting cars first, we put humans first?
I don’t want to get rid of cars, I want to prioritize humans. How can we build cars and other modes of transport that complement us humans, instead of building humans that complement cars?
After writing this, I feel more hopeful–I took the frustration and channeled it. Instead of forcing it into submission, I let it lead me to submit these words to you. I’d love to hear your reactions to this post and also to hear what kind of society you wish to inhabit 😀