Sunday, February 1, 2009

speed kills




Cars are an ideal in every ones lives these days. Without cars, the majority of Americans would not be able to commute to work, grocery stores, to visit a friends, run errands, etc. This is because if you do not live in a city, buses and taxis aren't that easy to get. So, for us, we would not be able to function right. I experimented with this on a Saturday and Sunday. Saturday I was going to go about my regular routine and use my car as a transportation like I usually do. However, on Sunday I was going to rethink if there were other ways of getting me to where I needed to go without a vehicle. This was a difficult task.

Saturday- I was picked up in a car at 9am to go home. I got home at about 9:35am. I returned back to my car at 11:00am and got to my desired area at 11:20am. Back in my car at 3pm for 30 minutes and used my car yet again at 7pm for 10 minutes and returned with it 11:30pm for 10 minutes.
Sunday- It was so hard not to use a car, yet I did have to use one 3 times. My only other option was to walk...I guess this is what you get for not living in the city.

All in all, I had used my car for one hour and 45 minutes on a regular day. I had lost an 105 minutes of an opportunity to build social capitol. I was not interacting with anyone besides my immediate family for that time and this was just one day out of the week. If every hour in the car was added up for a week, it would really show how commuting like this is weakening social capital. As I stated on Sunday, my only other option was to walk, and that would just not be practical. So, yes, speed does kill communities.

2 comments:

  1. I have never considered the amount of time I spend in a car per day! Seeing as I live in the dorms, I will for sure think about this next time I go home. Perhaps carpooling would be a better, more social way to get to our desired destinations?

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  2. This was really interesting!! It's neat that you calculated the time you take on average being in a car and how that affects building social capital. You had a lot of strong points explaining the impacts of transportation and its control on our society. I really enjoyed reading this!Carie Ewen

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