Miles 1 Hailey Miles ENGL 1102 Ms. Jessica Camargo April 1, 2014 Cars: Whats The Big Deal?

One day my grandfather started to talk about life back in the old days before he bought his first car. I started to think about how hard it was for them to even get to school and wondered how some people are still living that way today. Third world countries do not have the technologies that we have today. People are still walking to work and school. Then the people with cars are not regulated and cause thousands of crashes every year. How much does our lives differ from those in third world countries and how much of our transportation system do we take for granted? In the United States most citizens have personal cars and those who do not usually live in cities and use a public transportation system, walk or bike to work. Even though most of Americans own cars only about 9% percent of the world owns cars. This is a number most people do not believe I personally have no idea how it feels to walk to the store or school, so I asked my Grandfather what it was like for him before he had his own personal mode of transportation. There was a lot of walking, he said, They did have school buses so we didnt have to walk to school when we were older. (Miles) He went ahead and talked about how his family had to grow most of their own food since going to the market was near impossible. Also, how his father had the only car in the neighborhood so he drove his neighbors to the store when needed. Even the births in the family were all at home since the drive to the hospital was too far away. Growing up in this type of environment my grandfather was used to living without

Miles 2 personal transportation so when he was older he lived without a car until he was married with a child on the way. This is the mentality that Third World countries have toward cars, you cannot miss something you have never had. Third-World countries have adapted to serve people without transportation by using mobile facilities. These cars and truck are designed to bring services to people in rural areas. The purpose ranges from food services to sexual education and health care. These trucks can reach hundreds of people that would be impossible without them. Most of the roads in developing countries are mostly dirt paths that have been walked down by the natives. This provides another issue for the truck operators and limits the people that can be reached with these trucks. The long walking trips to the markets and water facilities have contributed the decrease in cooked meals and nutrition levels in the natives. (Achievements in public health)As a result of this more intense farming techniques have been implemented, which has increased the deforestation rate making the walk to obtain firewood for cooking and warmth longer. So, no matter what way it is looked at having no transportation is a losing situation. As Americans we do not realize how easy we have it. Everyone in the world could not live like Americans or we would have been depleted the earth of its nutrients, but I do not think we should take what we have for granted. People die each day in developing countries from exhaustion and malnutrition from not being able to reach the nutrients they need to survive. As Americans our standards of living are high which makes us oblivious to what is going on in the world around us. Third-World countries move to bettering their transportation systems has begun. Most countries have started to implement an accessibility plans. These plans provide free transportation to health and education facilities to people that live in rural areas. A study was

Miles 3 done in Kenya that discovered most transportation in males were to work while for women it was health facilities. This inspired the hospitals to provide transportation for these women, but the trips cost money that hospitals did not have. So that was when the Kenyan government began funding transportation for these women. This has been the only step that has shown some form of progression toward modern technologies. This also looks like it will be the last, Third-World governments do not see any type of progression toward the types of technologies used in the United States. The governments are looking to educate the men in these countries of the burden that is placed on women, since they do most of the traveling for the families. I think it is nice that their governments recognize that they cannot live like developed countries, but are trying their best to raise awareness to the strain that all the traveling is placed on the women in the country. That is also true for the health measures that are being put in place to take care of the women and children in the countries. They are doing the best they can with what they have and are making real differences in the well-being of their citizens. The United States have been using cars for over a century. The automobile was first made affordable by Henry Ford in 1908. Since then the government has regulated the safety features as well as the road that these cars are driven. These car being around for so long Americans have learned to take transportation for granted making them dependent. This realization has made authors like bestseller Chris Balish write books like How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life. This is a book created to teach an American how to survive in the United States without cars. He talks about how using public transportation and carpooling can put hundreds of dollars back in your pocket. I think it is good that people are trying to decrease their impact on the world now that they understand how much we use from the earth to create these cars and use to power them. It is

Miles 4 also sad how it had to be presented in a financial way for Americans to try and change their ways. Most people grow up with cars and even get their own when they turn sixteen; this type of upbringing has made us forget how hard it is to live without transportation. If the oil supply was to run out I seriously doubt that any of us could deal with walking to school or work each day. Maureen Mackey, twenty year senior editor for Readers Digest, approaches the subject by highlighting the time that is wasted using cars. Like the fact that the average American will spend around sixteen weeks of their life stuck in traffic and people that live in Charlotte spend an average of forty hours in traffic each year. Her solution for this problem was for more Americans to make the move to big cities and eliminate the need for personal cars. I think this is unrealistic no one will move their family to a crowded city just to escape an hour of traffic each week. Not to mention how congested the cities would be if everyone that worked in them lived there. It is best to acknowledge that cars are an extremely important part of our survival and try to make steps toward lowering your contribution to the emission problems. Life if completely different when it comes to owning your own car or walking ten miles to the nearest market. Third-World countries have to struggle the way most of us have never imagined. The purpose of this paper was not to guilt people into giving up personal transportation, but to help inform people of the real problems with transportation in developing countries. The privileges that are associated with being an American are sometimes overlooked and prevent us from seeing how blessed we are to live in this country.

Miles 5 Works Cited "Achievements in Public Health, 1900-1999 Motor-Vehicle Safety: A 20th Century Public Health Achievement." Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (1999): 369-374. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Automobiles. Greatest Achievements of the 20th Century, 2003. Web. 10 Mar. 2014.

Balish, Chris. How to Live Well Without Owning a Car: Save Money, Breathe Easier, and Get More Mileage Out of Life. California: Ten Speed Press, 2006. Print. Ellis, S D. Key issues in rural transport in developing countries. Transport Research Laboratory. Overseas Development Administration. PDF file.

Mackey, Maureen. "Life Without Cars: The New Un-American Dream." The Fiscal Times 4 Apr. 2012. Print.

Miles, Walter. Personal interview. 28 Feb. 2014.

Miles 6

Reflection

The easiest part of writing this essay would be the research that I did for the project and the hardest was actually using my sources to write something that made since and followed where I wanted to say in the essay. One of the strengths in this would be the interview with my grandfather while one of my weaknesses would be talking more about the transportation in American. I talked about the United States state now but I didnt go into detail about the journey to this point. Talking about Third World countries was my favorite part of my essay. The most thought-provoking aspect of my paper was discovering how to use the sources I have picked in my paper. I learned more about Third-World countries then I did before. I was not planning on becoming so intrigued with how other people live. I learned to do move revisions then I have done in the past. I am used to just writing a paper at the deadline and turning it in but I have realized how important revisions are now. I think that I will start to think in different mind sets. Put myself in other peoples scenarios and situations and not be so rash to make decisions without considering how it affects others. I would like my instructor to notice the layout of my paper, because that is what I believe I need the most help with. Also I would like specific feedback about what she thinks I should add to my paper. For my final draft I would like to add more to my paper such as quotes from my sources and a little more about the actual layout of the United States transportation system. Also for my last draft I would like to include the story of some who lives in a third world country.