Originally Posted by Falkon
Why not? Even if my car sits for months without me driving it'll still run, and the only thing it'll cost me is registration every year and what little gas I do use. The backup beater Toyota type car is always an option.
I can't argue that what you say isn't a perfectly rational choice for you. If I too lived somewhere where insurance was inexpensive, parking was free, and had a paid off reliable car I would be tempted to keep it as well. Though I'm a little uneasy about how reliable a car could be if it sits for months unused
But eventually, even for Toyota beater type cars, there will come a time when it will no longer make financial sense to keep it running. So then will you replace it? From an environmental point of view probably the worst thing any car owner ever does is to buy a new car. The mining of resources, fabrication of parts, shipment to assembly points, and final shipment for sale imposes a tremendous burden on our environment.
But maybe, you will argue, that you will just go out and purchase another beater Toyota. Again another perfectly rational choice on the individual level and one that I would probably do as well. But , in aggregate, your buying that Toyota means that someone somewhere buys a somewhat newer car instead. And so on until someone else, not finding an adequate used car, takes the plunge and buys the new one.
I read somewhere recently that, in the United States, there are more registered cars then there are licensed drivers. And I think the disparity is still growing (though recent news from Ford on production cutbacks may have an effect). I'd like to see this trend stopped and even reversed. I'd like to start seeing fewer new cars enter our roadways then the number that are junked.
Because then, perhaps, we will have started growing the population of people who are car-free. And at a certain point, though we are miniscule today, we will reach critical mass and will be able to take a seat at the table when planning and development of our communities are decided.
And it is then that we will be able to demand equal access, walkable communities, and rational dense development on existing transportation links. And, I believe, once that is in place people will be begging the junk man to come take their 2 ton rusting metal lawn sculpture from their driveway.
A dream perhaps ...