San Francisco Bike Blog

Generally speaking, the shrinking of the car economy is a good thing for us bicyclists (and pedestrians). It really is a perfect storm:

Auto dealers, who make their living moving cars off the lot, increasingly are finding themselves driving off into the sunset.

The financial crisis that has stung homeowners and depressed credit markets has spared no mercy for car dealerships, dozens of which have closed statewide this year, with many more expected to follow. The California New Car Dealers Association, which represents most of the state’s dealerships, estimated that 70 dealers out of about 1,300 members have called it quits this year.

…

Car dealers have been bedeviled by a host of factors, all of which have coalesced in recent months. The faltering economy and rising jobless rate means fewer people are in the market for automobiles. The housing slump has left little home equity to pay for new car purchases. The credit crisis has made it difficult for even customers with good credit to get decent rates on car loans, to say nothing of consumers whose credit has tanked due to home foreclosures.

And with the gas price spike earlier this year, the market shifted dramatically away from larger trucks and sport utility vehicles to smaller, less lucrative models. All of which has hammered the bottom line of car dealers, many of whom report a 50-60 percent drop-off in sales in the past two years.

In light of the financial wreckage, it seems as though the idea that cars are fundamentally incompatible with being smart with your money may start getting more attention. The job losses at closing car dealerships are only the start:

“The current economy doesn’t allow you to run a successful dealership,” said Chris Spencer, general manager of Los Gatos Chevrolet, which closed Tuesday. “Unfortunately, 35 people are out of a job, including my family.”

That inevitably leads to smaller ad revenue for newspapers, which means more job losses, slower consumer spending, etc.

I ate at an inexpensive restaurant in Noe Valley last night. Except for me, it was empty during dinnertime on a Saturday night. I asked the waitress if it was always slow like that and she said it was just during the last six weeks, just about the time the panic alarms were being sounded for the broader U.S. economy. She said other restaurants seemed busy occasionally, but at this particular place, business went off a cliff.

Telling folks that they can ’save on gas money’ by riding a bicycle is a good thing, but I wonder if it goes far enough. It seems we advocates don’t want to get into a social status trap where we suggest that if you ride a bike, then you must be poor. But we might be able to attack it in other ways. For instance, we can suggest that private car ownership is only something for the exorbitantly wealthy, and at that point, do you really want to be that person who shows up to the party and admits that you drove your own car there?

I’m thinking marketing along these lines - playing up the city aspect, and staying away from the environmental aspects of private car ownership - just because it will take focus away from our financial message. We want to tailor our message to the current sentiment on the streets, and as much of an emergency as global climate change is, most folks are more worried about the current financial collapse than anything else:

Owning a personal car is an extravagant luxury in any city, and in a city like San Francisco, which has the most walkable streets in America, a huge bicycling population, and decent public transportation — there really is no need to own a car. I mean, if you’re super-rich and you just want to have car for some reason - like maybe you’re insecure or something - go ahead, I’m not mad at ya, but I’m just trying to live a good life, not parade around like a peacock. Many folks get on a bike, decide they love it, and never go back to driving a car. Why would you? A lot of folks sign up for car-sharing programs like Zipcar, and use it the three or four times a month when they want to go grocery shopping or drive out to the coast or wherever. It’s perfect - there when you need it, but it doesn’t kill your finances. A lot of people tend to focus on the high cost of gas - and they are super high - but they’re just the tip of the iceberg of the expenses you incur when you own your own car. Car payments, insurance, maintenance, parking, parking tickets, repairs, gas - it’s a financial disaster for anyone, and it’s totally unnecessary if you live in the city. I wish I’d quit my car years ago. Go to sfbike.org - the bike coalition folks - get to their ‘Get rid of your car, Get on a bike’ page, and just do what it says. It’ll walk you through everything - how to sell off your car and start living a decent, normal life. Bike lessons. What gear you need. It’ll hook you up with other beginner riders. Everything.

It might be a bit strong, but when your opponent is backpedaling, you don’t wait for them to recover. Carpe diem and all that.

Do we hate cars? I don’t know what those people are talking about - I love parents being able to take care of their kids, families being able to stay in their homes, all of that. Getting rid of your car is probably the single best thing any family can do to get financially healthy.

For the record, I would like to see even more (explicit and open) cooperation between car-sharing services (the highest form of ‘car ownership’) and bike advocacy organizations. I wouldn’t mind the Zipcars and CityCarShares of the world supporting bicycle organizations to the tune of a few thousand bucks a year (or more). We can try to convince folks to go cold turkey and just get rid of their cars, or we can think of ways to make the whole process a bit less intimidating - that’s where car-sharing services come in. And, of course, the SFBC has already thought of a lot of this - with SFBC members already being offered Zipcar and CityCarShare discounts. Putting that relationship a bit more front and center could bestow an even greater legitimacy on both types of organizations.

People are scared of losing their homes, worried about losing their jobs, worried about the social stigma that accompanies ‘being outed’ as someone who has to borrow money or just scrape by to survive. I say we give them (myself included) cover - call private car ownership what it is — extravagant, fiscally irresponsible, unseemly.

…Interesting observation from a semi-related post over at No Impact Man:

I am a high school teacher and my wife and I sold one of our cars this school year and I ride my bike to work almost every day. Truly, I haven’t lost any weight (and I need to), but I feel better. I have a high level of stress, and every morning I feel tremendous anxiety, near panic. My 15-20 minute bike ride to work almost always calms me down and helps me feel better.

Interestingly, people assume I am deprived. I even had a family member offer us a car to keep. I don’t know if I’ve ever been offered a free car before. But we told them that this was a very conscious choice we made to have only one car.

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