A 21ST CENTURY RICKSHAW NATION? NOT A CHANCE.

Editor's Note: This week, Peter presents a powerful rebuttal to the haters and naysayers who continue to sound the death knell for the automobile, and reaffirms his belief that our love affair with the automobile is far from over. In On The Table, we take a look at the Brough Superior Richard Mille RMB1, an extravagantly executed – and priced – motorcycle that none of us will probably ever see in person. It is wildly excessive but definitely worth a look. Our AE Song of the Week is "Hollywood Nights" by hometown favorite, Bob Seger. In Fumes, Peter continues with Part II of his new series on his all-time favorite racing machines, Jim Hall's Chaparrals. And in The Line, we're going quiet, as the racing calendar takes a break. As a reminder, in case you've forgotten, we don't mention NASCAR around here. Onward! -WG

By Peter M. De Lorenzo

Detroit. My recent columns seem to have struck a nerve with a lot of our readers. It is predictable that every once in a while, the anti-car “intelligentsia” must rise up and launch a missive across the bow of The Rest of Us – the grossly misinformed unfortunates (as they see it) who occupy a dwindling space in the world – chastising our lot for being pathetically out of touch and in desperate need of straightening out.

This usually manifests itself with a spate of articles that suggest “Americans driving less as car culture wanes,” or something like that. These articles usually predict the imminent demise of the automobile and everyone who ascribes any value whatsoever to it in an almost gleeful, “Ding-Dong! The Witch is Dead” tone, while marshaling “facts” that suggest our transportation future will consist of us luxuriating in pushcarts stuffed with our worldly belongings in them, and that this will be environmentally righteous and good, and that we will somehow all be in a better place because of it.

The predictable statistics are lined up in rote fashion, of course: Such as, the total number of miles driven in the U.S. is down sharply; people don’t derive pleasure from driving anymore while they’re stuck in massive, stop-and-go traffic jams; that getting into a car no longer correlates with fun, not to mention becoming more of a headache to own a car in central cities with the difficulty of parking and storing.

It’s not surprising that most of these perspectives originate in Washington, D.C., one of the most car-unfriendly cities in the country. One AP report from the past went on to gleefully proclaim that “Gone are the days of the car culture as immortalized in songs like ‘Hot Rod Lincoln,’ ‘Little Deuce Coupe’ and ‘Pink Cadillac.’” This was backed up, of course, with this gem of a statement: “The car as a fetish of masculinity is probably over for certain age groups,” and “I don’t think young men care as much about the car they drive as they use to.”

As if.

From there, as I recall, the report’s slant pirouetted into a mishmash of ominous statistics all designed, hopefully, to make you want to take your car out back, shoot it between the headlights and be done with it.

A prominent rationale that has been beaten to death in articles like these is that the decline in teens clamoring for their driver’s licenses is pronounced because they’re now focused on their handheld devices, iPads and social networking effluvia. Which is proof positive that The End of the Automobile is upon us and that the permanent decline in car culture as we know it is nigh, with people of a certain age fading away with each new – and better - telecommuting option, while taking their obsolete automobiles with them to their graves.

At this point I recall a quote from Sean MacAlinden, then the chief economist for the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich., who, said, “I don’t think it’s a change in people’s preferences. I think it’s all economics. It might last if the economics stay the same. But if they improve, I think people will come back to driving more....Give a person a good job 25 miles away and they’ll be at the dealership the next morning.”

Sounds perfectly logical, but as if to bury that moment of levity the aforementioned report followed that up by saying, “The decline in driving has important public policy implications. Among the potential benefits are less pollution, less dependence on foreign oil, reduced greenhouse gas emissions and fewer fatalities and injuries. But less driving also means less federal and state gas tax revenues, further reducing funds already in short supply for both highway and transit improvements. On the other hand, less driving may also mean less traffic congestion, although the impact on congestion may vary regionally.”

The sad thing about articles like these is that they appear and rattle around the Internet, landing – and most likely resonating – in the touchy-feely enclaves of Washington and northern California, finding purchase with the usual gang of entitled and self-absorbed politicians who, when confronted with the “brilliance” of the slant of pieces such as these, think they have a free pass to impart this path of righteousness on the rest of us, saying to themselves, “This is what everybody is thinking and this is what everyone wants!”

Except that it isn’t.

I’ve seen this movie before, and it didn’t end well the first time. In fact, it never ends well. The last time The Rest of Us were exposed to this train of irrational thought in full bloom was at the height of the bankruptcy hearings in Washington, when the pitchforks came out and politicians of every stripe branded the domestic automobile industry and everyone and everything associated with it as being inconsequential and a remnant of an obsolete industrial America that needed to be put to sleep once and for all.

We all (well, most of us anyway) know that’s not true, but when you’re feeding at the public trough for a living like our esteemed (cough, hack) politicians are, and being driven around in King Kong SUVs as your only exposure to “transportation” – it’s hard to generate a rational thought about anything, especially the one industry that directly and indirectly contributes essential benefits to their constituents’ well-being.

And of course, what masquerades as rational discourse on the automobile and its place in society in our mainstream media outlets these days is often lost in a cacophony of calculated anti-car ramblings, clickbait for the anti-car “intelligentsia.”

If you would like to know what those members of the anti-car “intelligentsia” spark to, read on:

1. We should drastically reduce our reliance on the automobile and everything associated with it immediately.

2. This will, in turn, magically transform our world into a beautiful place filled with bunny rabbits and rainbows, one entirely devoid of pollution and traffic jams – from this day forth known as The Quiet Land – only intermittently interrupted by the faint sound of pushcarts being dragged along on our now quaintly refurbished cobblestone streets by Shiny Happy People muttering to themselves how wonderful and better things are – a warped 21st century Rickshaw Nation somewhat akin to America before the industrial revolution – only now with handheld devices.

(I will hand it to the anti-car “intelligentsia,” however, because they are at least consistent in their blind devotion to portraying the future of America as a long and narrowing road of Reduced Expectations, a soulless, amiable, inoffensive country that occupies a benign place in the pecking order of nations, something along the lines of Sweden, only with better scenery.)

But I have news for the self-righteous anti-car zealots who have this vision for America: It’s nevergonnahappendotcom. Those more grounded in reality understand that the future of transportation in America will involve personal mobility, not a nation of compliant citizenry happy to have their individual freedoms marginalized, curtailed or removed altogether.

To the chagrin of the doomsayers, the automobile – and the freedom it represents – is still alive and well.

As I’ve said before in previous columns, we are not as a country – thankfully – going to walk away from the automobile and settle into a blissful mass stupor powered by a fleet of bicycles, balsa-wood clown cars and “approved” AVs.

I know I’ve beaten this drum relentlessly these past few weeks, but I firmly believe that freedom of mobility will remain one of the most undeniable tenets of the American ideal, and that means that people will associate freedom, mobility and personal expression through their automobile choices, much to the chagrin of people who clearly don’t believe we should even have that choice any longer.

If you like driving a Tesla and if you like the “statement” it makes about your personal beliefs – with or without the anti-Elon bumper sticker – that’s perfectly fine. But at the same time, if you have a big family and you find that a Chevy Suburban meets your needs, then that should be perfectly acceptable too. There are no “wrong” answers here, because the freedom of choice and the freedom of expression happen to be among the most basic reasons why we live in this country to begin with.

Yes, the unpredictable, roller-coaster pricing of gasoline has and will continue to force people to make smarter choices in their vehicle purchases. But will high gas prices mean a wholesale abandonment of what the car represents in this country?

Not a chance.

The people in this country will continue to desire all kinds of vehicles – from SUVs big and small, urban gas-sippers and EVs, to pickups and other heavier-use vehicles – which the American automobile industry will happily continue to provide.

We’re a vast nation of breathtaking contrasts, and thankfully no one transportation solution could ever encompass the diversity of thought and the wildly different perspectives – let alone the needs and wants floating around “out there.”

Whether they’re Mr. Green Jeans acolytes or high-performance, thrill-seeking junkies, people will still buy an automobile that fits their needs, no matter how much the doomsayers insist that this can’t continue. And that must be so disconcerting for those who so want all of “this” – this automotive love affair – to be over.

Well, guess what? It’s far from over.

Not only that, for the rest of us it’s gratifying to know that we’re not only on the verge of a new beginning, but we’re on the precipice of an exciting new chapter of personal mobility – and the freedom that comes with it.

And that’s the High-Octane Truth for this week.

 

Editor's Note: Click on "Next 1 Entries" at the bottom of this page to see previous issues. - WG