On my way to
church this morning I passed three abandoned cars on the highway's shoulder. Five miles of highway, three downed cars. One a
Cadillac dating from the late-seventies or early 80s seems to have suffered a rear hub or bearing failure. A first generation
Dodge Intrepid had suffered its own rear-
suspension failure, judging by the excess of negative
camber noted on the wheel. The third, a
Hyundai died of invisible causes.
Automobiles are machines, and machines break. So seeing a car along side a road is not an unknown thing. Seeing three of them within five to eight kilometers is pretty rare. But it really didn't surprise me. Unless you live in New York City or two to three other very large cities, the public transportation stinks. That is not by accident. Public transportation is subsidized throughout the globe. It has to be in order to offer good service on off-peak routes and times. Most other countries regard this as a public good. Good public transportation enhances the living standards of the poor and working classes who don't need the expense of a car to get around. Public transportation is far more fuel efficient than automobile transport, and thus reduces oil imports and production of greenhouse gasses. That in turn improves their balance of payment situation when trading with other countries. People with vision problems can get around. Poor people get to work, the economic situation improves, and drunk people don't have to drive to get home. Parking problems and traffic jams are reduced, as are road wear expenses. It's a win-win situation for most countries.
But not in America. We didn't invent the automobile (the Germans did) but we sure did more to promote it than anyone and feel a divine right too it. Public transportation subsidies are rarely approved as almost no one actually takes the bus anywhere. While cars are very expensive, once you have one the marginal cost of a single trip is minimal. And because almost everyone has a car people tend to see subsidies as them giving money to someone else, and that's something most Americans abhor.
So in America, you have to drive. And when the economy turns bad, and your hours are cut at work, commissions are down, tips are down and income is down (provided you still have a job). And one of the easiest places to cut back is routine maintenance on that old car. Oil changes become less frequent, chassis lubrication goes down. Repairs are deferred or delayed. Until something breaks.
Take that Cadillac I saw resting on it's left rear brake. The owner had plenty of warning something was wrong. Wheel bearings make a grinding noise that changes with speed. Hubs going away vibrate. Non-mechanics don't know what's wrong, but you know something is wrong. Same for the problem on the intrepid. They would have heard, or felt something. Probably both. If they take it in to their mechanic he deals with it. But the driver is now broke. He or she just keeps on driving hoping for a break before something really breaks. Of course that's a fool's bargain. Repairing that hub or wheel bearing would have cost a third of what the Caddy owner will now have to spend. Provided the money is there at all.
And that's the other thing about America's dependence on the automobile. We use a lot of gas. When the economy improves, people will drive more. The cost of gas will go back up. A slow, mild increase might be absorbed. But we saw in 2008 how the price can double or more in weeks. That sort of increase will choke off any recovery right as it begins. And so the cycle begins again. The truth is that as much as America loves the automobile, we can not depend on it any more as primary transportation. We need alternatives for the sake of our poor, our dependence on foreign oil, for the stability of our growth, and because we can't go on producing greenhouse gasses like they don't matter. We don't have to give up the car, after all Europeans still drive. But we need to make it so that you don't need a car to live a normal life.