KILLER CARS. Cars do immense damage before they even reach the showroom, according to research by a German group reported in the Guardian (London), and then they move on for a lifetime of wilding. Heidelberg's Umwelt- und Prognose-Institut estimates that each car made in Germany, where standards are among the strictest in the world, produces 25,000 kilos (28 tons) of waste and pollutes 422 million cubic meters (552 million cubic yards) of air just in manufacture. Add to that, in a 10-year life: 44.3 tonnes (47.7 tons) of carbon dioxide; 18,400 grams (40.6 pounds) of tire, road, and brake "abrasion products" (grit); and the pollution of 1.02 billion cubic meters (1.3 billion cubic yards) of air. Disposing of the clunker pollutes another 102 million cubic meters (133 million cubic yards) of air. From birth to death, a car pollutes 2.04 billion cubic meters (2.7 billion cubic yards) of air, puts out 59.7 tonnes (65.8 tons) of carbon dioxide, and creates 26.5 tonnes (29.2 tons) of solid waste. Or, from another perspective, each car will kill three trees and sicken 10; every seventh car injures someone, every 100th handicaps someone, and 450th kills someone. One out of every 100 people are killed in a road accident, and two out of three are hurt.
Counting roads, garages, parking lots, and the rest, cars consume about 60% more of the German landscape than housing does. In its lifetime, the average car costs outsiders 6,000 DM ($3,752) a year in pollution, other physical damage, injury, and noise, after deducting vehicle and fuel taxes. This is nothing other than a vast subsidy, and one that is almost certainly larger in the U.S. because taxes are lower and cars less tightly regulated. In Germany, it is the money equivalent of a year's free pass on public transportation, a new bike every five years, and 15,000 km (9,321 miles) of first-class rail travel. But in standard ideology, cars are the self-reliant individualist's way to get around, and public transport is for dependent losers.
As the Guardian's author, John Whitelegg, concludes "the car is thus revealed as an environmental, fiscal and social disaster that would not pass any value-for-money test." But cars are still at the heart of our economies, societies, and geographies. Nasty contradiction.