Automobile Dependency

Paper Summary:

This paper uses the example of Canada to illustrate the modern world's dependency on automobiles. The paper explains that cheap fuel, inexpensive cars and poor public transportation make it very easy and convenient for people to simply use automobiles for transportation and that, in order to reduce our dependency on automobiles, cities must adopt new urbanism planning models.

From the Paper:

"Most people in todays society rely solely on their cars for means of transportation. With cheap fuel, inexpensive cars and poor public transportation, it is just easier for people to drive to where they want to go. Not only do most Canadians drive to work, fewer and fewer are choosing to take public transportation. Mainly because of a lack of federal funding, our transit systems aren't fast enough, direct enough or convenient enough to make them attractive options for more people. Currently, local and provincial governments spend nearly three billion dollars per year on transit, while the federal government provides no funding. To revitalize transit in Canada, federal and provincial governments should establish public transit improvement funds out of annual fuel-tax revenue (Torrie, 2004). By creating a better transit system that is more appealing to the masses, auto dependency would decrease. Cities like Vancouver and Calgary are utilizing more user friendly transportation systems. They have rapid transit systems that connect suburban areas to the downtown along major thoroughfares, as well as buses that link the more isolated areas to the rapid transit systems. Vancouver it is almost double the average U.S. cities transit level (Newmann, 1996). Meanwhile a city such as Winnipeg is so dependant on its automobiles it cannot begin to even attempt to utilize a rapid transit system. It has such a hold on the use of private autos that all of the streets are designed with the private automobile in mind. The physical layout of our cities creates an inelasticity of demand for automobile usage; to reduce demand is to cause considerable pain as alternatives simply do not exist (Newmann, 1996)."

More papers on Automobile Dependency:

• Research Paper # 90815 : "Study of the Canadian Automobile Industry"
• Research Proposal # 62262 : "Mortality Rates between SUV and non-SUV Automobile Drivers"
• Research Paper # 97489 : "Alternative Fuels"

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