Autofreizonischemenschen

Can we live without cars? Most car haters aren’t serious enough to actually do anything personally. The only discernible reflection of their beliefs is that they feel guilty about their ‘car dependence.’ But some people just get high on feeling guilty, so if it wasn’t the car they see as a naughty indulgence, it’d be something else they were feeling guilty about.

T’is the complexity and individuality of humans is what makes them so interesting. There ARE also enviros serious about living car-free. Not many, but some. They bike and walk and use transit, as much as they can....

And, just occasionally, they organize to build an auto-free community. They did that in Vauben, a suburb of Freiburg, Germany. The LA TIMES reports the place was designed and developed from open fields to be auto-free. It was advertised with stuff like: “kids tumbling in leafy courtyards without risk of getting run over, and bikestands supplanting driveways in blissful tribute to a life without cars.” So it attracted vairry serious anti-car types. People buying houses and apartments in Vauben accepted that it would be a place without garages or convenient parking. Handcarts for groceries, arrangements for deliveries, bike paths, footpaths and transit were all there. Everything was designed to encourage all those ‘good’ alternatives to the automobile.

Well, a mere six years this much heralded experiment in “green living” was launched, it is slipping back toward allowing its residents more convenient access to their cars.

Vauben is now being marketed as ‘auto-reduced’ not ‘auto-free.’ The LA TIMES reports that idealism is being “defeated by the demands of work, after-school activities, social life and shopping.”

If, even the most serious hardcore enviros cannot live without their cars, we ask, what justifies planning policies designed to get ordinary people to do that?

Grunen Angst uber Autos

Meanwhile leaders of Germany’s Green Party have called for a rethink of the party’s traditional anti-car stance. In a discussion paper the spokesmen for transport and energy Albert Schmidt and Michaele Hustedt say it is time for the party to accept that that the car is Germany’s “number one mode of transport, guaranteeing independent mobility, security forwomen and social status.” They argue that the reflexive opposition to the car is unrealistic and also alienates voters, especially young people.

Instead of opposing cars, the party should champion clean and energy-efficient cars, the paper says, including accelerated work on fuel cells and lighter weight vehicles.

The Greens are junior partners in the ruling coalition, which is trying to improve the autobahn system. The greens support has dropped in government and is currently 6%.