The Brunch Table

12/17/2002

“Divorce Your Car!” by Katie Alvord

Filed under: — Joe @ 8:37 am

Cash money link: Divorce Your Car!

I had heard of this book before, but I had always been put off by its smarmy self-help/activist title. However, my wonderful neighbor loaned it to me the other day, so I finally decided take a look. The book is divided into three sections. The first provides a historical account of the development of the automobile, along with the changing societal attitudes towards various modes of transportation throughout the 20th century. Having been familiar with the material after reading some of the more comprehensive books (such as Getting There and Down the Asphalt Path) from which much of the information here is drawn, I was surprised at how well Alvord draws together large amounts of background material to give the reader a quick yet solid history of transportation in the 20th century.

The middle section of the book details the costs of our pervasive car culture, environmental, financial, social, psychological, and medical. This provides a good reminder for those that think that pollution is the only problem with motor vehicles, and that hyper-efficient, hydrogen fuel-cell cars will save us all.

The final section answers the question “what now?”, and leads the reader through an evaluation of ways in which they can start to decrease their dependence on automobility, mainly by exploring their walkable surroundings and local transit sytems. I found this last part of the book to be the most grating, as it was the most activistic, cheering every small success. This is not to say that it’s not sensitive to the difficulties of joining the “car-free” or “car-lite” lifestyle; Alvord repeatedly encourages the reader to try other transport modes one day or trip at a time.

In the end, this Divorce Your Car! is a good place to start for those who are curious about the problems of transportation in the 20th-century United States, and who might be interested in exploring the alternatives. I still find the title embarassing, and unfortunately, the author runs with the marital self-help metaphor, giving her chapters cutesy titles such as “Not a Cheap Date: The Real Cost of Cars” and “On The Rebound: Alternative Fuels”, as well as peppering her prose with allusions to marriage and divorce. But for those who can look past the smarm, Divorce Your Car! (I still shudder as I type the ending exclamation point) is a solid introduction to the subject matter.

  • Janak Rogers

    Dear Sir/Madam,

    I am writing to you on behalf of the La Trobe University Environment Action Collective to request donations of articles to the annual ‘green’ issue of the La Trobe student magazine, Rabelais.

    The Environment Action Collection is group of students from La Trobe University, Melbourne, with a common interest in environmental and social issues who organise events and disseminate information regarding these issues in and around the La Trobe University campus. Each year we have the opportunity of compiling and designing an issue of the Student Union funded publication with complete editorial control.

    For this year’s edition we are seeking donations of articles from
    established writers/publications relating to environmental and social and political issues, especially works of comment and analysis between eight hundred and one thousand words. It is an attempt to sophisticate the publication and have it appeal to an audience who are traditionally sceptical to the musings of student activists, and also to directly introduce our readers to writers and publications we consider important and of whom they may have heard little about.

    This will be of benefit to us both. The magazine will run 3000 copies and will surely be read by a greater number of people. This will no doubt introduce your work to a new audience and direct their interests towards your future publications. And it will help us more effectively enliven campus interest in the social, political and environmental issues of our time. Neither the collective nor any individuals involved receive any financial remuneration from this publication, nor with their involvement in the collective at any time.

    Any material you do donate which is included in the publication will be used in full, without any additions and with full credit to the writer and, where relevant, the publication. No work donated will be used again at any time nor in any other way than described above.

    Please direct your reply to enviro.src@latrobe.edu.au before May 16th 2003, as we have to submit the magazine to the printers by the 20th May. We would also appreciate any suggestions of any writers/publications that who may be interested in donating articles.

    Thankyou for your time, for any donation, and for your work that we greatly admire.

    Sincerely,

    Janak Rogers
    j4rogers@students.latrobe.edu.au

Powered by WordPress