The Right to Own a Car

Listening to NPR today, someone was on commenting that "private car ownership" was an evil which plagued mankind, or something like that, something which has lead to a disfunctional region of the world (because of our demand for middle eastern oil), global warming, an increasingly separated society, a lessening of the importance of cities, hundreds of thousands of deaths each year, so on.

Sure, but the car has done more to increase individual freedom than any other technological advancement I can think of - not being beholden to the whims of public transportation, being able to move freely across this huge country, it's amazing. I am more urbanized than most people - I live in the middle of a city, I park 10 minutes' walk away from my apartment most days, I walk everywhere on the weekends, and generally I only use my car to commute to and from my work (1hr each way) during the weekdays. However, I'll be damned if I will give up the ability to use my car any way that I want.

I can imagine a time where, due to pollution, increased oil prices, or something else, car use would be restricted to certain people, or car use would be limited to a couple of hours a day or something similar. Manhattan might become a car-free city, or people might not be allowed to use their cars to commute. That'd be a major impingement on what I think is truly the basic right of all Americans to freely use a car.

So, I'd like to see the right to freely use (or bear) a car enshrined in the constitution. It'd be like the 2nd amendment (not the real one, but what people think it is), except for cars.

People aren't owed cars for the same reason they aren't owed guns - we don't guarantee everyone a free M-16, we don't tell everyone they can do whatever they want with the gun they've bought, you need a license to have a gun and you ought to be able to show you're capable of using it safely before you're allowed to keep one (same deal with drivers' licenses) but at some base level, we have enshrined the right to keep a gun. It would be like that, but for cars - so we could still have speed limits, we could still enforce rules about pollution limits, etc.

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Originally Posted by Stone

So, I'd like to see the right to freely use (or bear) a car enshrined in the constitution. It'd be like the 2nd amendment (not the real one, but what people think it is), except for cars.

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Anyone remember that case where the muslum woman sued for the right to take her drivers license photo with her face covered like a ninja because it was against her religion to show her face in public? She lost her case. Why? Because driving a car is a privilege, not a right, and should remain that way. There's some people that just shouldn't be driving cars.

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Originally Posted by Stone

Sure, but the car has done more to increase individual freedom than any other technological advancement I can think of - not being beholden to the whims of public transportation, being able to move freely across this huge country, it's amazing.

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IBTN

I'd be totally lost without a car, especially since I live in the subburbs.

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Originally Posted by Dolemite

Because driving a car is a privilege, not a right, and should remain that way. There's some people that just shouldn't be driving cars.

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There are some people who should just not own guns - people who will endanger others through gun ownership (felons, for instance).

People who are abnormally likely to endanger others in a car should not be driving, but everyone else should have the right to drive if they choose to.

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Originally Posted by Stone

There are some people who should just not own guns - people who will endanger others through gun ownership (felons, for instance).

People who are abnormally likely to endanger others in a car should not be driving, but everyone else should have the right to drive if they choose to.

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Yes, I agree with you now that you edited your original post to include "you need a license to have a gun and you ought to be able to show you're capable of using it safely before you're allowed to keep one (same deal with drivers' licenses)." Before you did that it sounded like you just thought that anyone should be able to drive anytime they wanted.

Still, what's the point of this thread? Pretty much anyone that wants to drive can, and I don't see that privilege going away anytime soon.

No way in hell would I like to see something like that. There are too many cars on the road already, and while those who live in areas with few people won't see a problem, big cities will be in trouble.

Heck, Puerto Rico is only 100 x 35 and has the largest automotive density per square mile in the world (2.5 million cars and only 3.8 million people), the most gas stations per square mile in the world, and is has one of the highest drunk driving-related death percentages in the U.S.

...and they want to make owning a car a right?

What they need to do is improve public transportation and stress walking and bicycling more, as well as improve car emission standards and gas mileage.

I dunno if owning a car is necessarily a right, but generally speaking I agree any competent person should be allowed to own one.

But having lived in Chicago and visited my Brother in NYC, I do know that if the public transportation system is good enough, not only do you not need a car, you don't even want one. And so I see no problem with America pushing more in that direction.

Right, I don't see anyone taking this right away soon - but I can imagine an instance where it would happen, and if something is a right - we should protect it before it truly goes under attack.

Look at London, where there is a massive tax on anyone driving within the city limits? I think it's easy to imagine a case where a city becomes so dense that cars are outlawed and public transportation becomes the only way to get around. Imagine that extended a decade or so further into the future, as these cities continue expanding?

I definitely get the feeling you've never lived in a major city. Owning a car in Chicago meant

- obscene monthly parking rates
-- paying for your garage or permanent parking space, easily $500/month. In some parts of town you have no choice, buy a space or don't have a car.
-- paying for the space you park in while at work
-- basically paying to park anywhere at all

- anything but convenient
-- when i first moved there I brought my truck. If I ended up at work too late, when I came home I literally drove around for 10, 20, 60+ minutes hoping to God someone would pull out so I could park and go to sleep.
-- obscene parking tickets: I got $75 parking tickets for not moving for the street cleaner often. Moving for the street cleaner was a royal pain in the ass, and I'm sure the reasoning for the obscene fee.
-- traffic, traffic, traffic, traffic, TRAFFIC!!

- cost
-- really high gas prices
-- parking, easily paying $20+ a day for this. Just to park in a lot anywhere near downtown (where most people work) was $20 for the day.
-- Very high risk of someone damaging your car.
-- insurance rates typically very high.

All that compared to waiting a few minutes for a train, sitting down, whipping out my gameboy and enjoying the ride? A train that comes around 24 hours a day, every few minutes and can take me anywhere? No contest. I'll take the train, thank you. If I really needed a car for whatever reason, there's always taxis.

Hehe. Stone lived in LA.

Anyway, I pretty much agree with what Stone is saying. There's no reason not to. However, I think if we eventually have to eliminate cars for pollution reasons or whatever else humanity can cook up, there's no way to stop that from happening.

if it'll take assholes off the road, I'm all for it