Class and Traffic

Like many features of life in the US, transportation is rife with class contradictions. National transportation policy, especially since WWII, has effectively been controlled by GM, Exxon and their associates (not coincidentally the biggest cabal of capitalist villains on the planet). These corporate interests have used their considerable political influence to ensure that highways get funded and transit systems don't, creating an extensive system of subsidies to encourage driving and discourage alternatives. The car-centered US transportation system has been created to maximize profits, not to enhance personal mobility.

An "enhanced" billboard in London

The prioritization of automobiles by governmental policymakers has had numerous detrimental effects, with the most damaging impacts borne by poor and working class people. Among the numerous impacts:

1) Housing Costs: In most urban areas in the US, 40-60 percent of the land area is consumed for the movement and storage of automobiles. The result is that the remaining space is more costly for housing, offices, factories, schools, hospitals, and other facilities truly useful to people. Imagine the impact on housing costs in San Francisco if all the city's parking lots were developed into residential buildings. The ground floors of most residential structures provide not housing for people, but shelter for cars (garages). The cost of building "off-street" parking raises the expense of all housing.

In addition, city governments have often demolished residential neighborhoods to expand road facilities (think of Geary through the Western Addition), depleting available housing. These road projects also diminish a city's property tax base, resulting in either reduced services or increased property taxes, again raising the cost of housing. The social resources devoted to road maintenance and construction diverts money away from affordable housing development, among other things. The high cost of housing greatly impacts the proletariat.

2) Healthcare Costs: Each year approximately 43,000 people are killed and 1 million hospitalized as a result of automobile accidents. The survivors of car crashes often require emergency room care and extensive rehabilitation. In addition, asthma, bronchitis, and other respiratory ailments are exacerbated by automobile pollution. Water and food are often contaminated by auto-derived toxins. Automobile-related stress (noise, hazards, etc.) and fatigue from driving also impact public health. Supply and demand economics dictate that this increased need for healthcare due to an auto-centered transportation system raises the price for health services and insurance. The greater expense of healthcare is a greater hardship for poor and working class people who can hardly afford it.

3) Income Levels: The typical automobile spends about 95 percent of its existence PARKED, meaning a huge amount of social wealth is tied up in rusting automotive metal. Vast amounts of capital are tied up in roads and streets, which are designed to accommodate peak demand during two hours at the beginning and end of each workday. Additional wealth is wasted on parking facilities at suburban office parks that often sit empty on weekends. All the social resources consumed to support auto-dependency mean fewer resources are available for more productive investment. This means it costs more to borrow money, hurting the productivity of the economy and holding down wage levels.

Payments for car loans, auto insurance, fuel, fees and so on are often the largest household expense after housing. This contributes to the abysmally low savings rate of Americans - already the lowest in the world - again raising the cost of credit and hurting productive investment. Employers also count the cost of providing parking as compensation, meaning workers' wages are held down regardless of how they get to their job.

4) Quality of Life: Automobile facilities are generally located in poor and working class neighborhoods. The powers-that-be build refineries in working-class Richmond, CA not well-to-do Orinda, CA. They build freeways through the Mission District, not Seacliff in San Francisco. They can find $1.1 billion to rebuild the 4.5 mile Cypress Freeway so middle-class commuters from Castro Valley, CA can save a few minutes traveling into San Francisco; yet these same politicians can't find a mere $1 million to maintain late-night service on AC Transit. They build costly BART extensions so middle-class suburbanites can easily get to SFO for their business and pleasure trips, but somehow can't electrify CalTrain and extend it downtown to serve working class people every day. Transportation priorities clearly reflect a class and racial bias.

Additionally, poor and working class people depend on public space, such as parks and streets, for recreation and community activities. We generally can't afford the dues at exclusive country clubs or private resorts. However, the quality of "public space" is diminished by an auto-centered transportation system. Streets once functioned much like parks: providing light, air and recreation and community space to all neighborhoods. Streets were places for demonstrations, rallies, children's play, fairs, festivals, etc. Now, streets are seen principally as utilitarian corridors for automobile traffic.

-Paul Dorn

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