Running On Empty
This is not a newsletter listing all the reasons why Running on Empty should have been a Bruce Springsteen song, but it could have been.
Looking out at the road rushing under my wheels
Looking back at the years gone by like so many summer fields
In sixty-five I was seventeen and running up one-on-one
I don't know where I'm running now, I'm just running on-Jackson Browne “Running on Empty”
Jackson Browne, despite being a perfect encapsulation of the “Ok Boomer” meme, captures a lot of what growing up in a deindustrializing United States felt like in his song “Running on Empty.” Falling apart Rust Belt towns on both sides of the road hemming everything in, your only escape an empty road and a Ford pickup. From teens on up cars became one of the ultimate signs of freedom in America. We need to get rid of them right now.
In 2017, drivers registered 272.48 million motor vehicles in the United States. That number has only gone up. While certainly not the biggest producer of pollution in the world, cars do their fair share. Outlawing cars in say every city bigger than Kalona Iowa, with a few exceptions, seems like a drastic measure, but taking drastic measures looks like the only way out of this mess. And like a lot of drastic measures, it requires sacrifice. But that’s the point. The future will not, cannot be all bread and roses. There are going be thorns too. Capitalism built a world based on promises of a beautiful consequence-free future. It failed to deliver, and in failing left the world with a hell of a mess to clean up. Nothing can make that clean up easy.
Anyone can enumerate the positives of getting rid of personal vehicles. Fewer accidents, lower greenhouse gas emissions, cheaper gas, not having to pay car costs, decreased reliance on oil, less wear and tear on roads, the list goes on. In fact, this newsletter started out as a re-write of an essay I wrote freshman year of college laying out in more detail those benefits. The re-writing remained necessary because no one should read such excruciating prose. The positives of making the world hospitable have been laid out many a time. It’s the negatives that remain hidden.
For one, people will have to bike or walk more after Getting rid of all non-emergency vehicles – that includes cop cars, those suckers can ride bikes for all I care. No longer can you take an Uber to get groceries. You might have to sit next to someone on the bus who tries to convert you to one of the more out-there variants of Christianity. You won’t be able to go straight from your two-car garage to the covered parking lot of a restaurant when it’s raining. I will just take longer to do stuff in general. But damn, isn’t the Earth worth it? The sensation of the wind whipping through your hair as you drive down 90, The Boss blasting from the car speakers, will be lost. But then again, when it’s 120 degrees in December and the Midwest is a mosquito filled swamp that feeling will be just as lost.
Fixing the planet requires sacrifice. We can do with fewer types of canned pasta sauce. No one needs a new phone every year. Or 20 pairs of blue jeans. Same for getting four new Marvel movies every year. We just don’t. Getting rid cars only seems like a big deal because cars and freedom remain so closely linked in the American psyche. Many people live without cars every day. Other people can learn They’ll create more jobs for people in infrastructure, as we’ll need more trains, buses, etc. Car factories might shut down, but fully-funded early retirement will be offered to anyone with more than 20 years in the industry. Job placement/re-training will be the number one priority for these workers with guaranteed jobs in train/bus manufacturing center for those who want them. A green jobs training program will also be put in place. It’ll be expensive of course. But it’s saving the world, so it should be. Obviously, some exceptions will get written into the law. Some people can’t just get up and walk to the nearest bus stop or bike to get groceries whenever they want. Developing publicly funded door-to-door transportation options will have to be provided. Emergency vehicles – not including cop cars, they can ride their horses – will also receive exemptions from the ban but other than that you’re going to have to get rid of your car.
Stopping our planet from turning into a giant inhospitable ball of CO2 requires a massive undertaking bigger than anything the world has ever seen. It’ll suck. People will have to give up some stuff. But if that’s the price of a livable planet, who’s complaining?