Suddenly I have two cars: the ancient 1991 Infiniti G20 most of you know has been in my possession since November 1999 and which I thought would remain so for the rest of my driving life (over 295,000 miles on the odometer and like its owner...in excellent condition) and now a 1998 Nissan Altima. Here they are, a little like soldier ants mating, end to end:
As with so much of my life, there is a bit of a story about this. Briefly, I discovered the other week that it would be almost impossible and certainly a long and tedious process to register the Infiniti here due to it having an Oregon salvage title. Luckily, I was able to buy the Altima very quickly from a professor about to go on sabbatical and solved my transport problem. The Infinity has in store a pleasant fate...a story I will tell in an email at the end of the month.
From the pictures, one might think that I do not know if I am coming or going... in certain respects, a metaphor for my state of being at times. You will understand this reference when I tell you I am reading two books, The Party's Over (Richard Heinberg) and Divorce Your Car (Katie Alvord). These lead me to think I should be ridding myself of cars, not acquiring them.
In 'The Party's Over', Heinberg reviews the possible effects of the diminishing of fossil fuels, particularly oil, and the changes that might well overtake us as we overtake the asymptote of global oil production ('Peak Oil') even as global demand continues to rise. While this is not pretty reading, I strongly recommend you check this book out. We are having a break from this currently as we enter a global recession caused by the financial madmen (once revered as financial wizards) on Wall Street. Amazingly, gasoline costs around $2 a gallon at the moment. A problem is, everyone in India and China wants to have a motor car just like we do. Inevitably, this will adversely affect availability leading to rising prices. That the oil refinery workers here in the US are contemplating going on strike, as I write, and may well be when you read this, thus closing down 60 refineries, will intensify matters.
Katie Alvord urges us to end our love affair with the automobile. This also makes for chilling reading; do not pick it up late at night if you want to get a good sleep. However, do not let this stop you from reading this remarkable book. The history of the car in our society and its effect on remaking our culture is well told, and the ill effects attendant on our devotion to the car elegantly detailed.
So, why do I have a car? Like many of you I am caught in the pincers of urban misdesign. While we have a Wal-Mart and a Home Depot just down the road a mile or so and easy to reach by walking (no footpaths or sidewalks by the way, however) we are five or so miles from the town while my classes at college (thoughtfully perched up on a high hill well outside town) are about seven miles distant. I can make do with cycling most of the year but, here in winter with the temperature 10 to 15 degrees below freezing most days, one does not see many cyclists abroad!
It is no comfort that this 'urban misdesign' is the direct result of our dependence on the car as the center point of our culture. Those of you who live in Portland, Oregon, be thankful for the city planners who have managed urban growth pretty well (but maybe not well enough if Heinberg is halfway right), have developed a rich network of public transport, and have encouraged bicycle use. According to Wayne Gretzky, the secret of great hockey is to be where the puck is going to be. For the rest of us, the key may be to know where the global currents are taking us and arrange ourselves accordingly.
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