Why I’m not anti-car - but I hate (being forced) to drive | Car Culture 5: Systemic car dependence
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 ส.ค. 2024
- There’s a vicious rumour going around that I am anti-car. It’s an outrageous suggestion! I love cars! I’ve driven and owned a car for the majority of my 45 years on this good Earth!
Cars a source of freedom. They are free transport. They are totally convenient and way better than any other form of transport, particularly in such a perfectly designed city like Brisbane which has set its schools, shops, hospitals and universities far enough away from residents that walking is impossible, and cycling would be OK - but to prevent that, we make sure the roads are as hostile as possible for bicycles.
This is what a modern city is all about, right?
Seriously, I do own a car and it is, unfortunately, essential for my family to live and thrive in Brisbane city. I’ve never met anyone who “loves” driving in traffic congestion, so I’m sure I’m not alone in saying I detest it when I am forced to drive. I would love nothing more than for all my trips to be feasible by bike or public transport.
Unfortunately, there are still a good number of trips every week that are not, including taking my son to school.
Car dependence is a policy feature in Australia. Brisbane Times reported this week that in some suburbs, 3 in 5 families own 3 or more cars.
Check your suburb here:
www.brisbanetimes.com.au/nati...
The RACQ estimates that for a small car less than 5 years old, families pay over $10,000 a year in operating costs, and that escalates to a whopping $23,000 for an off road Wankpanzer like a RAM or Land Cruiser.
Check out the data here:
www.racq.com.au/about-us/news...
Wankpanzers are demonstrably more dangerous and are linked to a steep rise in pedestrian deaths in the United States, and the trend is already here.
www.theguardian.com/news/data...
While Brisbane is a geographically large city, most trips are short - less than 10km in length. And yet the overwhelming majority of trips and commutes are made by car, and it’s making us sick:
www.businessinsider.com/commu...
There is a better way, but instead of prioritising investment in active and public transport, Brisbane City Council and the Department of Transport and Main Roads double down on futile “congestion busting” road projects, leaving Brisbane residents in a permanent state of despair.
We need to demand more. Are you with me?
0:00 Intro - Why I love cars!
0:38 Freedom
2:25 FREE
6:02 Cars are fast and convenient
10:37 Urban sprawl entrenches car dependence
14:17 Car dependence is our enemy, not cars themselves
The greatest misnomer of being "stuck in traffic" is that you ARE the traffic.
Yep, but as I point out, for many people they have no alternative to driving. So they are stuck, stuck by their backwards thinking government and local council.
@@ChrisCoxCycling I agree individuals have little choice but our political leaders are hearing the plaintive cries from car drivers begging for wider lanes and more roads.
It appears that people fail to recognise this.
I am anti-car
And I'm OK with that.
People also forget the cost of depreciation on their car...drive it out of the showroom and there's -30% already!
Got called into work early this morning, was able to make it in 15 minutes, passed an uncountable amount of cars on my way. Would have taken 45 minutes to an hour to drive in peak hour traffic
I forgot that other benefit of cycling - the feeling of smugness as we cruise past the non moving cars 😉
The lack of east-west public transport in South Brisbane is infuriating. I would kill for a high frequency bus route that connected major destinations such as Mt Ommeny, Darra Station, Salisbury Station and Mt Gravatt. Currently, if you want to go anywhere east from Western suburbs, you're forced to travel all the way into the city adding an extra hour onto the trip, and obviously making driving 7x more effective.
Completely. I didn't touch on that aspect. All PT leading to the CBD is so silly, especially when buses run parallel to the train lines. Cross Town, intersecting services would be so much more effective
Great video. I am fortunate enough to live in Canberra. I cycle commuted to nearly 40 years, all weather, all year. It's not for everyone, but I feel I ( and indirectly my family ) benefited. Since retiring 6 years ago I mostly get around on an electric cargo bike. These are hugely practical vehicles and I can do most of what I used to do in a car in our local area. Shopping, taking my dog to the park, even my grandkids come with me!
For what it’s worth I’m not anti-car I’m anti-unnecessary-car the reality is (particularly in a place with weather as nice as Brissy) most car trips are completely and utterly unnecessary and are only made for two reasons.
1. Lack of safe infrastructure.
2. Laziness.
A speeding ticket arrived in the mail yesterday. My first thought was that I wished I'd ridden my bike that day instead. But in the context of $10,000 in annual costs, a drop in the ocean pretty much. I still need my car for a lot of trips, but the truth of it is that a lot of car trips are more due to habit than rational choice. It's not just physical exertion on a bike there are various logistical aspects, familiarity with routes, navigation in general, lighting and being "fresh enough" at the other end. One thing about cycling though, I definitely know Brisbane much better, and have a broadly better opinion of, than by car. The quality of the journey also matters, but for some reason we tend not to think that way.
Agree! Brisbane needs greater bikeway connectivity that's safe so more will use it. 🚲🚲🚲
I have a work mantra of "the right tool for the job". There is definitely some truth to cars being too much the default and a lack of alternatives.
100%, that's the main cultural thing to shift. For the vast majority of people, need to go anywhere, take the car. That's just automatic decision making.
It's good that you can drive because it gives you an understanding of how the car drivers feel's when your advecating for safer cycling. And will give you more weight to the argument with your local council I'm surprised you can cycle on motorways that's unheard of in the UK. Great video. As always. Stay safe
Just to clarify we aren't allowed to ride on motorways here either. Chris was riding on a bikeway that runs alongside the centenary highway so potentially looked like he was :)
During early 1990s, I lived out at Shailer Park and had to commute to Indoorapilly. The freeways were obstacles forcing bicyclists to negotiate indirect routes. This was the time when the cycle infrastructure was being talked about and there was a bicycle route from Griffith Uni to Kingsford Smith Drive. I had several punctures every month, as well as several near misses. Culturally, Brisbane people are not used to dealing with cyclists in a confined area. Conversely, Rockhampton in its past history of having QR railway workshops, major meatworks, hospitals, schools, Telecom establishments, shops and offices, had most people commuting to work by bicycle. So the bicycle culture is remembered. Nowadays the council has widened and paved the roads and has many dedicated cyclist paths and routes, with many people riding for recreation, sport and some commuting. Unfortunately the majority of students are driven to and from school, although some university students ride bicyles.
That driveway at 00:30 is lethal! It basically funnels you out onto that dual carriageway into oncoming traffic at the mouth of an intersection! They build for the car and yet they still mess it up!
What a great clip, nice work Chris! It’s like you’re reading my mind! People do love their cars and also it seems people think they are being punished if they have to walk anywhere. We have a long way to go.
To be honest, it does feel like punishment to walk around Brisbane - highways going through the city, the polluted air feels like it’s killing me with every breath I take, most of the times side walk is not enough for two people both ways so no chitchat and even if there are no people from the other side and you can walk next to each other you have to scream through the cars’ noise, and oh my gosh how degrading it feels to simply cross 100+ roads on your 20mins walk : beg-buttons are evil, time wait for pedestrians 10 times longer than for cars, and where there’s no traffic lights cars have the upper hand and pedestrians have to wait forever to let everybody pass … Walking feels like a second class citizen 🤷♀️ hopping it would change soon 🤞
Great video man. I'm very anti car. I don't have a car , just 7 bicycles. My favourite thing is cycling from Darra into the city at peak hour and zooming past long lines of motorists stuck in their cars on the clogged up roads of Brisbane. I often wonder what they are thinking as they sit there in their cars stuck in the traffic jams on the Centenary Highway and they see me go flying by on my Cannondale Caad 12 road bike laughing and having a great time getting high on dopamine and endorphins from the exercise ? Maybe they wish they could join me but are very unfit and too lazy to make a change ?
Or afraid of accidents 🤷♂️
Mark, legend. I feel the same. I used to work in the city and would ride along Yallambee Road in Jindalee with dozens and dozens of cars banked back waiting to get onto the Centenary Motorway. The degree of smugness cruising by them every morning was *chefs kiss*
Wingedmagician: Yes, fear of safety is a major issue, and is the primary barrier stopping people taking up cycling even for short trips around their neighbourhood. And that perception of danger is by design. We've made it as convenient and safe to drive fast and unimpeded, and in the process we've made it hazardous for people NOT in cars. That's what has to change.
Excellent video Chris, spot on views. Hopefully some of our 'congestion busting, getting up home safer and faster' decision makers will actually view and question their policies.......I won't hold my breath.
Thanks Terry. It's so frustrating. Being at the coalface of advocacy for so many years, hearing all the same platitudes in meetings but then seeing all the same wrong things being done is disheartening. The only way things change is if people speak up and speak loud. Can't just leave it to advocates. Everybody is an advocate. Everybody needs to speak and vote against car dependence.
@@ChrisCoxCycling I hear you! Even the smallest project they cant get right, they upgraded a postage stamp size park near us recently, new playground- did they widen the paths? nup- also they made it worse for active travellers by getting rid of the direct line to the path through and putting in a non direct path that requires a 90 degree turn- all on a 900mm width path- who dreams this stuff up? Fortunately people are creating a desire line through the unplanted garden where the path used to be !! It's not difficult, but they excel in making it so......sigh
Yesterday night the England v Nigeria Women’s match was on at Suncorp stadium at peak hour. I didn’t experience the traffic myself but I heard that it was backed up from Caxton street all the way over the William jolly and through southbank to the annerly bikeway. That’s just one game. Imagine how we handle the Olympics.
Hoping that when I graduate from my law/justice double degree I can find a job in road policy and work up to do something that is meaningful.
Bizarre to me. We all know these events have free public transport. We all know that there are road closures around events. There is signage in lots of places well away from the stadium advising an event is in progress - for 24 hours before. Why do people still drive through there when an event is on?
Bike theft is my biggest concern after road rage. I'm a cycling nut and have more bikes than I care to admit, but I worry too much about leaving them anywhere, and I'm so sick of harassment and bullying on the roads that I invariably end up driving, even short distances. The bikes only really get used recreationally off road these days. Brisbane sucks for cycling, especially up on the north side where I am.
That's really sad to hear, mate. I've fortunately never had any issue with bike theft (*knocks on skull* touch wood). Harassment by motorists happens, sadly - and until we get serious about investing in cycling infrastructure as a genuine, prioritised part of transport, it's going to be treated with disrespect by a small but not insignificant minority.
Very good video. Great for addressing the 'everyone who bikes is anti-car' and the 'us and them' attitudes. Interesting how you have the same issues in your part of Austrialia as i do here in Lincolnshire in England. Mainly - lack of infrastructure, lack of connected infrastructure, projects and budgets that prioritise vehicle use, safety aspects, lack of facilities at work etc.
We have some roundabout widening projects going on in my local area that are costing millions (to make roundabouts, not the connecting roads wider), yet to add anything to the project that aids vulnerable road users, it costs too much or is too complicated. I dont know how ped and cyclists infrastructure is too complicated.
As you rightly say, people will use the most convenient mode of transport. We need to make jumping on the bicycle for relevant journeys as easy as jumping in the car.
I'm not anti car, but i am anti idiot driver. If we could address poor driving standards, we might get more people feeling safe when cycling too. The best outcome though is decent segregated and connected infrastructure.
Thanks for watching. Isn't it weird how often it's too complex, expensive or constrained to add cycling infrastructure to a project that's widening a road or intersection in a constrained corridor... it's not "too hard", it's "we just don't want to".
@@ChrisCoxCycling Spot on. 😁
With you all the way there Chris! Excellent video too. Since leaving my "real" job and working from home, I no longer drag myself all the way across Brisbane twice a day, instead have sold my car, built a cargo bike, and do most of my local errands by bike. Of course the family still has a car and as you say, for some things it's required. But no regrets on getting rid of mine!
Nice! I've been living the WFH life since 2018 as well. Apart from going out to film the good, bad and ugly of cycling in Brisbane, my main trips are to the local shops. House full of growing boys, we go through a lot of food, so there's always something to pick up.
We're a two car household still, but the 2nd car belongs to my 18yo son who is a gardener by trade so kinda does need to be mobile. Not that he's bought a wankpanzer ute - just a nifty little hatchback which does the job remarkably well generally. Guess not all tradies need a massive tank...
Love your "Authoritarian Government" shirt Chris; I got the same one for my girlfriend last year!
Cool and normal 😉 The Juice Media kept me sane during the ScoMo years.
Great vid. Thanks mate
Great video, Chris! :)
Cheers mate!
You should visit the Netherlands someday; experience a different, dare I say 'better', kind of infrastructure.
Do hope to get there one day soon. Until then I'll settle for watching Bicycle Dutch and Not Just Bikes to fill me with envy.
Yes. We should be designing walkable / cycable towns with public transport.
I think you're missing the biggest problem. The biggest problem in my eyes is the fact that you have to have. Car insurance that costs half your check, and if you decide, you don't want a car for a few months and just want to cycle through the summer. Then they will raise your rates like crazy when you come back.
Honestly criminal how they force you to have it even if you wont want to drive, even if you walk and your car is out of commission. You'd better keep that insurance on there or face the consequences
I feel the same
Make sure you tell your local representatives. They need to hear it so it sticks in their minds.
Bikes deliver the freedom ....that car adverts promise 😎
I wore the wrong Tom Flood t-shirt! ;)
You"d love Europe!
I know I would. I intend to visit sometime, but I probably won't want to come back to this Mad Max carpocalypse.
After you've ridden enough, you think: Why take the lazy, frustrating, carbon emitting, congestion option?
Aussie cities are too low-density. Go upwards not outwards!
Wank panzers 🤣
Man your traffic lights change for bikes at the same time as cars instead of letting the bikes go first?
That’s so backwards.
There's lots of backwards here...
@@ChrisCoxCycling keep fighting the good fight mate, keep making people aware.
Cars give people more freedom than most realize. Worthless opinion discarded.
Nobody's stopping you driving, bro. Enjoy your wankpanzer.
Mate, if you would support us bike nuts to get our bike lanes built, we wouldn't have to drive and you'd have more road for yourself.