Op-Ed: The hidden cost of cars

In the ongoing discussion at Community Board 10 to address the onslaught of pedestrian injuries and deaths along the Fourth Avenue corridor, safety obstructionists like to point to the historical trend of ever-increasing automobile registrations, implying that measures to protect pedestrians would create a self-inflicted economic and social catastrophe for our city.

This superficial claim can only be advanced by those who refuse to grapple with, or even acknowledge, the pervasive social and economic ills that over-reliance on cars is already costing us.

The truth is exactly the opposite of what the obstructionists claim; any historical trend showing an unending increase in auto registrations is due to shortsighted, irresponsible public policies that incentivize people to buy cars even when other modes of transit would benefit everyone.

Where to begin? The car, with its relentless appetite for land, not just for highways, but for gas stations, auto dealerships, junkyards, tire shops, auto glass and stereo installers, auto-body shops, suburban sprawl and an endless expanse of parking lots, is a destroyer of the urban fabric. The ugliest parts of our city are the automobile slums dedicated to these uses.

Then there is the well-documented history of urban highway projects destroying vibrant urban neighborhoods, including right here in Bay Ridge. This is detailed in The Power Broker, Robert Caro’s magisterial biography of Robert Moses.

What else? The American Public Health Association has published numerous studies detailing the enormous health-care costs cars inflict on society, amounting to $260billion dollars each year.

Our federal government provides enormous tax incentives for oil companies to keep the cost of gas artificially low and hide the true cost of our car addiction. We expect the city to provide curbside parking at little or no cost to motorists even though this public resource is very expensive and only encourages people to buy more cars, once again hiding the true cost to the public.

According to the Federal Highway Administration, Americans spend an average of 80 billion hours a year stuck in traffic, at a cost to our economy of $168 billion! The trend is clear. Cars in New York City impose a cost on society of up to $1.50 for each mile driven.

Cars can provide many conveniences, but let’s not blind ourselves to the burden they impose on our society. It’s high time we strike a better, more just balance between cars and pedestrians on our city streets.

Robert HuDock is a practicing architect and urban planner, and a member of Community Board 10 where he is chair of the Environmental Committee and a member of the Transportation Committee. He is currently at work on a book entitled Car Wars: Reclaiming Our City Streets for Pedestrians.