I was just wondering about this topic this morning.
My thought was peoples happiness seemed to have been higher during the lock downs as driving habits changed drastically, such as a great number of individuals not needing to commut to/from work. This decrease traffic and commute times for essential workers, and increased satisfaction of both commuters and now non-commuters.
“Extreme car dependence is affecting Americans’ quality of life, with a new study finding there is a tipping point at which more driving leads to deeper unhappiness. It found that while having a car is better than not for overall life satisfaction, having to drive for more than 50% of the time for out-of-home activities is linked to a decrease in life satisfaction.”
The car has artificially increased distances people need to travel, and has also had a impact on inducing urban sprawl. Cars require space to drive and at the same time require large parking spaces at destinations points. If all this infrastructure was instead used for trains, trams, and buses, things would be closer and cities would be denser.
It would also be interesting to know how increased commute times on all forms of transportation affect peoples happiness and satisfaction. For example increased crowding and increased commute times on public transportation such as trains and subways could also be draining and frustrating when performed on a daily basis.
…I mean, traffic sucks and all, but I’d rank that pretty low on the list of things that make this country a depressing place to live.
It’s not just about traffic.
Driving requires sitting, which we do too much already and, at these levels, is bad for our health, both mental and physical. Cars also make the world around them noisy and polluted, which also negatively affects health. Even being near the streets and not in a car is taking your life into your hands. Roads take up space that could be (and often was, in the past) devoted to housing or park space.
Our overdependence on cars has radically altered the shape of life in America, and basically none of it for the better.
The sudden repair cost that could threaten your ability to make ends meet also sucks.
I enjoy the activity of driving, but relying on it sucks.
Agreed on all points, just again I’d rank those low against other factors plaguing this country. The Nazis are not only back, but surging in popularity; our rights are dropping like flies; we’re being inflated into poverty - things like home ownership are a fucking pipe dream; the climate is rapidly trending toward not supporting human life and our representatives couldn’t give less of a shit…
Those are driving Americans to unhapiness. 100% fuck cars, it’s just pointing to them as the source of our unhappiness is like complaining of an itchy ass while actively being mauled by a bear - no one likes an itchy ass, but… the bear…
Ignoring small problems because big problems exist is how you end up with a greater number of big problems. Or political apathy.
