Well, if you can imagine how much time people spend commuting to work, shopping, etc. without cars then I suppose this question answers itself. I don't own a car because I just haven't needed one for about a decade. I take public transportation and I own an electric scooter for getting around between bus stops. My current commute takes 1 hour and 25 minutes to travel 12 miles. Because of how the local bus routes run, on nice days I can shave off 30 minutes by riding the scooter to a stop along the route of the 2nd bus I have to take to get to work.
My commute right now is more or less the same as it would have looked for someone before Mr. Ford started up his production line. When I was still driving that same commute only took 20 minutes. So, for simplicity, let's say that a car gives me 2 hours a day just on my daily commute. That's 10 hours more a week (or 520 hours annually) to be more productive, run misc. errands, do the shopping, see a movie, take a class, etc.
I'm not entirely convinced that if you stole 520 hours a year from every person who ever owned a car that the world would be a better place now. I can't even begin to imagine how much longer it would take a farmer to cultivate a field or get crops to market without the development of the highway system that exists primarily due to our collective love affair with the automobile. My guess is that technology and a lot of the things that make life more pleasant for everyone would not be nearly as advanced as they are today if the people who invent, develop, and produce those things had to spend an extra 500+ hours a year just getting from place to place.
Without cars, we might be having this conversation on Wazniak Blue Boxes...
My commute right now is more or less the same as it would have looked for someone before Mr. Ford started up his production line. When I was still driving that same commute only took 20 minutes. So, for simplicity, let's say that a car gives me 2 hours a day just on my daily commute. That's 10 hours more a week (or 520 hours annually) to be more productive, run misc. errands, do the shopping, see a movie, take a class, etc.
I'm not entirely convinced that if you stole 520 hours a year from every person who ever owned a car that the world would be a better place now. I can't even begin to imagine how much longer it would take a farmer to cultivate a field or get crops to market without the development of the highway system that exists primarily due to our collective love affair with the automobile. My guess is that technology and a lot of the things that make life more pleasant for everyone would not be nearly as advanced as they are today if the people who invent, develop, and produce those things had to spend an extra 500+ hours a year just getting from place to place.
Without cars, we might be having this conversation on Wazniak Blue Boxes...
