Is driving killing us? and why?

We all know that pollution is bad for us, just like I always say we all know cigarettes are bad for us, but we continue to pollute ridiculously, right into the air we breath. It's almost like dumping your waste water right back into the lake you drink from (Oh.. wait, I live in Chicago, we do that too). This article shows just how bad these pollution fumes are affecting us. The article discusses that pollution is increasing the risk of brain cancer, making us fat, and so many other things, but it also mentions that we are losing out on valuable social time while we are in cars, and are spending more and more time behind the wheel than ever before. I know there are way too many articles out there about this, we all know that driving is bad for us, it increases the chances for divorce, it causes road rage, it causes pollution, sitting causes so many problems (see my previous post) and yet I still find these ideas interesting.
Treehugger recently published an article about the economic issues with driving. It seems that more Americans are paying more for transportation than ever before, and not just car payments, but fuel costs and maintenance fees. If we can barely afford to feed our families, why aren't we figuring out a new way to get around!?
I have a friend who lives right next to a train stop, and his office is only 2 blocks from a train stop on the same line, yet he drives to work. My theory is that once you buy a car, you want to use it, and using transit isn't that much cheaper once you have a car. Some of the biggest costs associated with driving are the insurance, maintenance, and storage fees. If you pay $100 a month to park, $1000 a year to insure your car, and $500 a year for maintenance, you still have to pay these fees if you take transit (though maybe not AS much for maintenance). I think people should aim to get rid of cars instead. I am a member of a car sharing group, and while I have used the service occasionally (for picking people up at the airport at ungodly hours, or moving a couch) I don't miss having a car parked outside my house. I don't want to deal with maintenance (every three months getting an oil change is just too much for me to handle), and I don't want to have to feel like I am being ripped off by an insurance company, but mostly, I just want to be able to leave and not worry about what happens to my car. Most people think that the expensive and hassle part of owning a car is the gas. While in the long run you may spend more money on gas than any of the other driving associated costs over the course of a year, people feel this cost in smaller increments and therefore do not think they are that bad (this is why I support pay as you drive insurance, and higher gas taxes, it IS expensive to drive, but $20 a week doesn't feel so bad). Maybe with all the news out there about pollution we will learn that the costs of driving go beyond even the fees you know you have to pay, but all the way to a little girl with asthma down the street, or the boy who died of pneumonia because he couldn't clear his lungs. We need to start realizing that every second behind the wheel we are killing ourselves, our brains, and our friends.

Now that I've just gone off on a depressing rant about driving, I will show you what originally inspired me to post this blog. Good Magazine posted an article about the new Nissan Leaf commercial. I find the article to be humorous, in a dark kind of way (the link on the picture is just a reference, the article is linked to the blue text above). The most interesting part of the article (well, ok, not MOST interesting, but pretty interesting) is in the comments. Someone mentions the fact that the electricity we use is not clean either, it produces pollutants, just not right in your face. While I agree that this is a problem, I think the commercial brings to light bigger questions, if we are so used to doing things a certain way, does that mean that there isn't a better way to do them? I think we should take it upon ourselves to try to figure out how we can live cleaner as one individual, and as time goes on, and gas prices finally rise far enough for people to start driving less and less, maybe the world will be a cleaner place, and maybe technology will finally catch up to our demands without completely destroying our environment.

R