Time to Take Car-Crazy Cliche on a One-Way Trip to Junkyard
We Californians love our cars like no other Americans. We drive them more often and farther than anyone else.
We are road junkies who drive mile after mile, addicted to the lure of the freeways which we ply with radios blaring and hair streaming in the sun. We are different from other states.
Wrong.
In 36 states, there are more vehicles per capita than in California. In 36 states, people also drive more miles per capita than we do. Forty-two states use more gasoline and diesel fuel per capita than we do. And 37 states have more licensed drivers per capita than we do.
The notion that Californians are car-crazy is a “pervasive myth that’s hard to kill. It’s not based on any rationality, fact or research,” said Martin Wachs, professor of urban planning at UCLA. “We are not substantially different from other areas of the U.S.”
In California, the average motorist drives less than the national average, weighing in at a mere 12,944 miles. (In Georgia, by contrast, the average driver travels 15,835 miles.) In New Hampshire, over 44% of households have two vehicles, the highest of any state. Why not call them car-crazy?
The hard truth, experts say, is that Californians enjoy this myth not because of any compelling evidence, but because of their ignominious past.
By 1929, there was one car for every nine people who lived in Los Angeles. In East Coast cities, the ratio was one for every 25, Wachs said. In the years since then, the driving patterns and ownership numbers have evened out, Wachs said.
The cliche, however, flourished.
“We got the rap from New Yorkers,” said Charles Lave, professor of economics at UC Irvine.
It’s repeated so often that it evolved into an urban legend. And the auto manufacturers egg us on. What greater tribute to car culture than a vehicle name? Ferrari California. Chevy Malibu. GMC Sonoma. Chevy Bel Air.
It’s this cultural phenomenon rather than a statistical basis, some experts say, that gives rise to phrases referring to Californians as “long in love with their cars” (Chicago Tribune), or having a “long-standing love affair with the automobile” (San Francisco Chronicle), or “addicted to freeway travel” (Washington Post), or having “always worshiped at the altar of the automobile” (L.A. Times).
“California rises above the rest of the country in generating enthusiasm for doing something with a car, rather than using it solely for getting from Point A to Point B. In California, a guy . . . likes to enjoy a car; he doesn’t want to drive a Plain Jane,” said Dean Batchelor, a consultant to the L.A. County Museum of Natural History’s Petersen Automotive Museum.
More than anywhere else in the nation, said Thomas L. Bryant, editor of Road & Track, a car has become a symbol of our identity. “A lot of our self-image in California is tied up with what we drive.”
Such talk makes Daniel Sperling roll his eyes.
Sperling, director of the UC Davis Institute of Transportation Studies, has heard it all.
“People do value cars very highly, they value the attributes of the cars; it’s not based upon some ephemeral aesthetic. It’s the privacy, freedom, security, and mobility that cars provide,” he said.
None of that means that Californians are having a love affair with their cars--and why should we? Choking smog. Persistent congestion. Drive-by shootings.
In fact, in a recent survey of Southlanders, 30% said that they are very often bothered by traffic congestion and 49% reported that their commute has become worse. Of those surveyed who changed residences within the last two years, one in four cited commute-related reasons, compared with one in 10 two years ago.
Californians are about as in love with their cars as Floridians are. No more, no less, Sperling and others say.
New Jersey--not California--was the birthplace of the very first drive-in restaurant. And the first drive-in mortuary opened in Atlanta. Drag racing? That started in the Appalachian South. “If we want to talk about car-crazy,” said Alan Pisarski, a national transportation policy consultant, “the people who are really ca r-crazy are Europeans,” where cars are driving down the use of mass transit.
Of course, there are enough anecdotes scattered across the landscape to convince you that we are special in some ways.
Numbers notwithstanding, the Southland is the Mecca of motoring modsters, from drag racing and drive-in restaurants to hot-rodders and lowriders. Two of three major car enthusiast publications--Road & Track and Motor Trend--are here, as well as a host of car clubs.
Motorists here are able to make less practical choices of vehicles because we enjoy mild winters (with little rain to rust precious car bodies) and no snow (so corrosive salts are not spread on roads).
“There are two sets of people in this country. The vast majority look at a car as an appliance, but then there is a significant group who really like cars and like to be involved with them,” Bryant said. “California has more car enthusiasts per capita.”
