The cover of this week’s Washington Examiner magazine depicts a train tied in a knot, an idea with which artist Dean MacAdam succinctly captures the mess of urban mass transit in the United States. Nicole Gelinas of the Manhattan Institute, in her cover story, “Train Wreck,” lays bare the utter incompetence of transit authorities across the nation.
There are many reasons to have properly working urban rail and metro systems, among them affordability and the need for an alternative to dysfunctional, twice-daily rush hours on the roads. (“Rush hour” is an ironic term, applying as it does to the one time of day when it’s impossible to rush anywhere.)
But aside from practical incentives for decent mass transit, a moral or ideological one has grown up, too. For decades, the Left has nurtured an antipathy toward automobiles. This is partly because gasoline-powered vehicles contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, although today’s cars are more than 90% cleaner than they were a couple of generations ago. I recall reading that a 1970s auto parked with the engine off emitted more pollutants than a 21st-century car humming along a highway at 70 mph.
But practical concerns about air pollution and climate change do not, I think, account entirely for the Left’s distaste for private cars. It also seems to stem from the fact that automobiles — the etymology is auto (“self”) and mobilis (“movable”) — are symbols and facilitators of personal freedom.
The Left wants more mass transit built and subsidized also because it obliges people — passengers — to act collectively and according to official schedules rather than by themselves whenever they please.
As you blaze along the highway on your vacation this summer, think what a marvelous freedom it is that you can travel in one vehicle from door to door along roads fanning like capillaries — we refer to them often as arteries — through the nation’s body. Roads and automobiles allow you to get where you want in comfort with your luggage without having to go to an inconvenient hub, switch from a train to a bus, or hail a taxi.
Back in 2005, I was talking to Rep. Joe Barton (R-TX), who was then chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. His energy bill had just passed. He remarked almost wonderingly that a gallon of gasoline, weighing just 6 pounds, can move a one-ton automobile containing several people many miles toward their desired destination.
It’s true. As shocking as the price now makes it to fill your gas tank, it’s still a marvel that you can transport your whole family for an incremental 20 cents a mile.
The car culture is also particularly American, which is another reason why foreigners and our Left sneer at it. It has grown in America as nowhere else partly because of geography — this is a huge country — and partly because our wealth means most families can afford at least one car. But it’s also because we prize personal freedom, and cars help make freedom a reality. When gas prices soar, it’s a blow to our pocketbooks. But also against freedom.
