The Traffic Hierarchy
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- Published on Monday, 26 September 2016 21:45
- Written by editor
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A Socialist Project e-bulletin .... No. 1308 .... September 27, 2016
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The Traffic Hierarchy
One is not born a motorist, one becomes one.
Planka.nu
Mobility and class are deeply entangled. Not only because one's potential for mobility often has to do with one's economic position, but also because a society built on today's mobility paradigm -- automobility -- directly contributes to growing economic and social differences.
A society which puts the car on a pedestal quite obviously favours motorists. Another obvious fact is that white high-income and middle-aged men are an over-represented group among motorists. And the opposite is true among public transport users. But, a society that prioritises motoring, and looks at ever-growing mobility as an almost magical recipe for development, increases the differences between its citizens and different parts in other ways... as well.
The current traffic hierarchy, with the car on top and with public transport, bikers and pedestrians at the bottom, manifests itself in the fact that these means of conveyance are given different amounts of space and resources. With the car on top of the traffic hierarchy we get a society built on automobility: a world where our lives, to a far too great extent, are steered by cars.
