Archive for the ‘Loco-motion’ Category

More car-nage on Effie

Friday, April 30th, 2004

Today Gordon and I met the chaos on Effie before we even got to the base of the hill. There were three average cars crumpled like aluminum cans in a neat pack at the side of the street. A pair of police officers was calmly taking notes, and 8 or so people had gathered on the sidewalk and were smiling and chatting placidly about exchanging insurance information as if they were passing around business cards at a party, or even as though they already knew one another. The scene looked carefully constructed, like an installation of contemporary art with museum patrons milling about the exhibit on opening day. Or maybe all the people were part of the exhibit themselves?

Or maybe my casual studies of car culture’s dark side are getting to me.

Cross yourself and drive

Wednesday, March 3rd, 2004

On the morning walk Gordon and I usually accompany Bob toward the Metro station. Today I turned at Bob’s chuckle to catch, just barely, a neighbor’s meaningful ritual: sitting alone in her car, she crossed herself, then drove off.

I figure this powerful image can well launch my polemic against the automobile. It’s been a rocky affair, my relationship with The Car, and I have noticed an accumulation of *negative* thoughts lately as I drive the insane slave-ways of Los Angeles county.

I loathe cars because they are dirty, ugly, stinky, noisy, needy and deadly. I hate my car for making a hypocrite out of me, for coaxing me into a lifestyle of laziness and hyper-consumption. I despise the way swarming, wheezing automobiles have transformed this land into a sprawling, smoggy metal insect colony.

Meanwhile, trapped in a personal hell with screaming commercial radio channels (and even stately and benign NPR is getting old), I hurl myself forward at speeds no average human should attempt by herself (er, did I mention my hypocrisy?), and the odometer tracks these sins and mocks me!