Car-dependency represents big government overreach.
Building good transit promotes freedom of transportation.
Car-dependency restricts life and liberty
Car-dependency is when the built environment requires a car for basic errands; is enforced by the government when it builds only roads with no alternatives like safe sidewalks, bike trails, or frequent transit; and robs us of our freedom to move how we wish. In essence, it is the government saying “you will pay for a car, or we’ll trap you in your house.”
Car-dependency has deadly consequences. According to the CDC, road-related deaths are a public health crisis and kill 45,000 Americans a year, almost as many as all crimes and mass shootings combined. Additionally, car-dependency is especially deadly for non-drivers, such as pedestrians and bicyclists.
Ending car-dependency needn’t come at the expense of cars
Not everyone wants to drive, but making car-dependent communities forces everyone to drive for every errand, increasing congestion. By building safe, convenient alternatives to driving into our transportation infrastructure, those who choose to drive will be unburdened by those who choose not to. Building more highways does not fix this problem.
Bad transit is a choice
Because transit in America has been so bad for so long, it’s a common misconception that transit is always inconvenient or slower than driving. Rather, driving is more convenient because, each year, the US spends $206,000,000,000 making it more convenient, mostly by state and local governments. Transit, by comparison, gets less than a third as much funding, even in the face of a $176 billion investment backlog. Rebalancing this spending inequality and building frequent, reliable transit systems would give people the freedom to live and travel how they wish, not force them to pay for vehicles, gas, insurance, and maintenance just to do daily errands.