Contrasting Attitudes Toward Drunk Driving
It was with great interest that I read your story (Dec. 31) concerning social attitudes toward drunk driving in Norway and the United States. It’s about time that we begin to look at more fundamental ways to reduce the massacres on our highways and this research is a step in the right direction.
May I suggest that concerned citizens consider the fact that in Norway (and many other countries where drunk driving is less common) only a small percentage of the citizens own automobiles. Compact cities, with extensive public transit and neighborhood bars, enable people to safely enjoy a few drinks without needing a car to get home.
In addition, since automobile accidents unrelated to alcohol use account for about half of the annual death toll, why not eventually limit their use to activities where they are most useful? Let’s build a transportation system that is balanced and uses walking, bicycles, buses, streetcars, light rail and heavy rail transit, commuter trains, taxis and automobiles for the jobs that each does best rather than putting all our resources into freeways and care for the victims. Buses and trains are about 24 times safer per passenger-mile than a car.
Balance in our transportation system could also make our city more pleasant. We could free land that is wasted for parking and overly wide roads for other uses such as affordable housing, neighborhood shopping areas, offices, light industry, parks, schoolyards and bike paths. We would have the flexibility to choose several ways of reaching each destination and we could walk around the corner for a drink or use transit or inexpensive taxi service to get home from a party.
Our city could begin to transform itself from a mass of sprawling asphalt into identifiable communities where most of our daily needs could be met in walking distance while having the freedom to safely travel to surrounding towns for pleasure instead of necessity. We might even be able to enjoy smog-free skies again and visit natural areas closer to home.
It’s time to kill the sacred automobile cow--if we don’t it will continue to kill us!
KIRK SCHNEIDER
La Habra
