Changing our relationship with the automobile

Do you really need a car? It’s the question I will try to answer in this article.

Recently, on a tech blog, I spotted a comment about the relationship we, humans, have with cars. We love them, and some people love them more than their own kind.

Over the past decades, we have seen the number of cars exploding. According to statists, the total of new cars sold in 2019 was over 78 million (78,7M). And approximately 1.2 billion cars in 2019. And it could probably jump to 2.5 billion by 2050. It’s totally crazy.

Like you, I love cars. The Lamborghini Aventador, The Audi Q7, Q8, e-tron, R8, RS6, The Mercedes — Benz G63, Tesla S3XY, McLaren 720, VW Golf, Ford Raptor, and so many others.

Despite this love, since June 2019, I don’t have any cars for personal reasons. I preferred to reallocate the “car budget” somewhere else.

It wasn’t possible before when I lived in a small village lost in the south part of Belgium with only 2 bus lines (1 each in the morning and 1 each late afternoon). And of course, if you don’t live in a small, medium, or a big city (aka if you live in a village), it’s impossible to not have one (or more) car.

I am not surprising you when I say that automobile has a cost. Between, the price of the vehicle (buy or rent), the gas (or electricity if you have chosen for a hybrid or electrical vehicle), the insurance, maintenance, taxes, and other joyful things that sometimes happen (aka fines).

I am also not surprising you when I state that cars have an environmental impact. Even if EV will slowly decrease CO2 and NOx in the atmosphere, some other pollutions are linked with batteries. For good or bad, I want to think EV is better than a “classic” vehicle.

So, why do I wrote this article?

To get your attention of the importance of own (or lease) a car. Do you really need it? Is it merely impossible to live your daily life without it? Public transport can be longer than a car trip.

But think about it for few minutes.

Do you really need one (or more) car(s) right now? Will not it be better to put the car budget on something else? Do the maths. Compared it to public transportation (it won’t work if you are a Uber or Lyft driver ;) ).

Most of the time, your car is resting in your garage or the parking lot. It doesn’t produce income, it’s even the opposite. Does it procure freedom? Most of the time no. Between the car trip’s stress (when you are stuck in a traffic jam) and the financial stress, it can occur.

We have to rethink our relationship with the automobile.