On my last day of work as a paid carpool promoter for Fortune 500 companies in a crowded corridor, Dustin gave me a new perspective to my three years of toiling.
"You know Susan, we're fighting against the biggest advertising campaign in the history of the world -- the automotive industry." Dustin is a peer in the transportation demand management industry -- who knew there was such a thing?
Thank you Dustin, for explaining why people don't want to give up their comfortable, private, customized, convenient, status symbols to drive with other people, take public transit, or, [you can laugh here - most people do] bike to work.
EVERY CHANNEL of the media reinforces the freedom, classiness, speed, luxury and beauty of personal car ownership.
The solution to $4/gallon gas? Make 4-cylinder cars that are lighter and get higher gas mileage.
Dustin showed me that something in our culture must change if we are to change our driving habits. The change might be $4/gas, gridlocked roads, cleaner vehicles, government restrictions on how much we can drive, or a mass realization that our exhaust is melting down the planet.
The soggy permafrost in Alaska is just too far away from our backyard, our way to work, our livelihood, to register on our radar.
We don't believe one person can make a difference.
One person alone cannot make a difference, in the same way one soldier on a battlefield, one football player on a playing field, one civil rights leader standing alone at the Lincoln Memorial is helpless alone.
Making different choices our energy use will only happen by influencing the silent majority to change, and hit the magical tipping point.
Sadly, that zenith is obscured by a plethora of ads for cars and trucks, and a contagious thirst across the globe for carbon-polluting personal vehicles.
When will we ever learn?
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
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