I live in a VERY car-oriented, sprawling American city, where public transportation ranges from abysmal to non-existent and a suburban existence can mean it can be 2 or 3 miles to even the nearest supermarket and perhaps 15 or 20 miles to an average office. So as far as it goes, this is a place where people depend on and live in their cars.
All that said, I made a conscious decision to live and work downtown and learn how to use what little public transit there is. It wasn't easy, and I REALLY had to examine my priorities, but I am car-free! I walk to work and pretty much everywhere else I need. I LOVE LOVE LOVE it! For any sacrifices I may have made (my smallish apartment and lack of a backyard, for example) I have gained so much in lifestyle and would never give it up! I happily describe myself as "car-free"!
The most interesting thing would probably be people's reactions to my car-free choices.
The older generation tends to be skeptical and assume I just can't afford a car, and would move to the suburbs if only I made more money. (This is not the case, I make plenty of money to afford a car and a suburban mcmansion. I just don't want one.) Or they assume that my life must be terribly inconvenient. (also not true!)
The young - the lower end of gen X and the millennials - tend to be envious! Once they overcome initial surprise, they immediately start to fantasize about a world free of parking tickets and rising insurance rates and dishonest mechanics, the benefits for the planet are there as a consideration but almost an afterthought. They immediately see the joys of walking out the door of my apartment to my choice of restaurants and a supermarket only 6 blocks away, and mere blocks from local pubs. Think of a life without even the *chance* of a DUI!
Lots of young people can't make the choices I have, and are stuck in the 'burbs, but the values and ideals are changing. We dream of a post-car society, too.
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A Post-Car Society
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Cars are increasingly just a mobile utility; the real consumer time and effort goes into picking the coolest mobile phones and personal computers, not the hippest hatchback. The rental-car industry has grown by more than 30 percent in the past eight years, as urbanites book weekend wheels over the Internet. Meanwhile, government surveys show that spending on cars per household per year fell by 14 percent, to $600, between 2000 and 2005, while spending on Net and mobile-phone subscriptions rose by 39 percent, to $1,500, during the same period.
For Japanese car companies, the implications are enormous. "Japan is the world's second largest market, with a 17 to 18 percent share of our global sales. It's important," says Takao Katagiri, corporate vice president at Nissan Motor Co. The domestic market is where Japanese carmakers develop technology and build their know-how, and if it falters, it could gut an industry that employs 7.8 percent of the Japanese work force.
While surging exports, particularly to emerging markets, have more than offset the decline in domestic sales so far, companies are looking for ways to turn the tide. Nissan, for example, is trying to appeal to the digital generation with promotional blogs and even a videogame. A racing game for Sony's PlayStation, for example, offers players the chance to virtually drive the company's latest sporty model, the GT-R—a new marketing approach to create buzz and tempt them into buying cars. Toyota Motors has opened an auto mall as part of a suburban shopping complex near Tokyo, hoping to attract the kinds of shoppers who have long since stopped thinking about dropping by a car dealership. It's a bit akin to the Apple strategy of moving electronics out of the soulless superstore, and into more appealing and well-trafficked retail spaces. It worked for Apple, but then Apple is so 21st century.
© 2008
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