I'm always amazed at how attached so many NYCers are to their cars. They'll say they 'need' a car for this and that...coming up with a litany of explanations as to why they can't do without a car. Often they'll say they have a car out of goodness for someone else, i.e., for their kids or their elderly parents. But...somehow, many folks with kids...many elderly...get along just fine without owning a private 2-ton street-hogging, gas-guzzling car, not to mention an SUV!
SUVs are like a virus...everyone now having one for 'safety' or 'so they can see over the other cars'. So what's next?...everyone is gonna start buying low-end priced Hummers for safety...because everyone else has a Hummer, so now I need one?
Back in the day entire families managed with a single car. Now everyone must have 'their own' car, and typically an SUV. People grab the car keys to go 4 blocks to McDonalds for their Big Mac.
I heard someone make a very interesting observation recently, about the strong car culture we have in the US. They said that, can you imagine private citizens demanding that the city allocate public space to them to keep a private possession? In other words, cars are private possessions, and yet drivers demand street parking. Take away a lane for them, for health-friendly, enviro-friendly bikes, and they get all up in arms. It's sorta like how gun-nuts get when we say we simply want gun control. "Oh, no, you're not gonna take away OUR parking spots....you're not gonna take away a car lane from us for those 'bike people'!!"
Today it so happened I was out and about in Astoria, and right around the time when school was getting out. I was walking down ...I think it was 38th Street....towards 21st Avenue. I saw lots of schoolkids walking down the street, but what also struck me was.... there was an entire ROW of DOUBLE-PARKED cars down the entire length of 38th Street.
As I got to 21st Ave, same thing.... it was utter chaos....cars double parked on this block and that... all to pick up their spoiled lazy kids. I'd be willing to bet that for a number of these kids, they live within a ten-block radius, yet here are the parents, chauffering them. There are other kids that surely live further away, and who are getting picked up. But then, I see plenty of other kids waiting for MTA buses to get home. Why can't these other kids do the same?
Sheesh. Talk about lazy, entitled, self-centered people. Nowadays, parents baby the kids. And the parents think nothing of causing major traffic jams to pick up their precious little darlings. If we don't like them double-parking....pulling out into traffic....blocking bike lanes.... tough luck! F U! Mind your own business! Right???
My word... people are just so self-centered nowadays.
Topic: entitled car-owners (Read 779 times)
