Commuter Culture is Incompatible With Car Culture

An illustration of the gulf between commuters and car enthusiasts who would rather drive the newly engine swapped Trailblazer through canyon apexes on the weekend than sit in it every morning idling in traffic.  

Car culture is not commuter culture, as a car enthusiast myself I can attest we're just as frustrated by the lack of transportation options available to commuters resulting in countless hours wasted by traffic and other inefficiencies. Enthusiasts see automobiles as rolling art, we appreciate the skill and effort required to create these artworks, each unmistakably reflective of the culture at the time it was produced. Additionally, building mainstream cars for commuting, rideshareing, etc is boring. People who appreciate the art of automobiles and driving should be the loudest advocates for diversifying commuting options. With more options of how to commute, people who just want to get to work comfortably have a transit system to ride and are not a large consumer base whose preferences automakers design cars to cater to. Car enthusiasts are an underutilized community who want to reduce emissions, spend less time commuting and have the skills to help design the diverse transportation networks of the future.

Part of the reason I'm so optimistic diversifying transportation options is a broadly appealing concept is my own experience discovering bicycling while commuting in Washington, DC.  Moving to DC from rural Minnesota where I relied on automobiles for transit I adapted my skills to getting around via biking and public transit. Bicycling to work was a phenomenal way to commute through some of the country's most traffic clogged streets efficiently. Though it had it hair-raising moments and DC surface transportation infrastructure leaves a lot to be desired it was great experience overall. Even in the short time I've lived in DC cycling has become more popular and safer with motorists now more accustomed to interacting with bicyclists on the road.

Seeing how much more efficiently bicycles can move through traffic lead me to think about transportation infrastructure in a new way and shed a more objective light on development practices which have harmed our planet and society. Reversing decades of toxic car-centric development, which has harmed our physical, mental,and social health will be a big task, but we can harness this moment and start by scaling up the more sustainable alternatives which already exist. Especially now that we are able to harness new-media outlets, such as the diverse cast of content creators on the internet who are showcasing amazing creativity and which organizations working in the transportation policy space should be communicating with to reach a larger audience.    

To that end, transportation think tanks should be reaching out to Youtube content creators with transportation focused channels. It would be an effective way to share their organizations research with a broader community who are also very invested in the future of transportation. For example, even a channel focused on restoring internal combustion automobiles illustrates the impressive recycling ecosystem that exists for used automotive parts which are used to keep existing cars on the road longer. Electric cars may be the automobile's future, but it matters how we get there and if we keep up our voracious consumerism buying a new car every couple years even if that car is electric we will be causing unnecessary harm to the planet with our behavior. Expanding the audience beyond an organization's newsletter or social media accounts will help bring in people with a diverse skills to help craft thoughtful transportation policy to move us toward a more sustainable future.