alternative

Ivan Illich and the bicycle
by Giulio Canziani

It is not the first time (and it will not be the last) that we deal with this, the transport center in any plan for a healthier society and free, eco-friendly and ... libertarian.

In 1973, when Ivan Illich writes "In Praise of the bicycle" the typical American dedicates each year to the car 1600 hours of his time. The calculation includes the amount of time spent in the car "is sitting there, parked and running in the park, going to take it" and time spent in the car that "you earn the money needed for the advance on the purchase price and monthly payments, working to pay for gasoline, highway tolls, insurance, road tax, fines. Each day that passes it means that the car requires four of his sixteen hours of sleep or on the road or busy to put together. "Four hours a day to travel 12,000 km per year, the result is an average speed of 7.5 km / h. Struck by these calculations, a little 'mania for statistics, a little' to reassure my conscience I began to numeracy: So, my utility cost is X, will last at least 10 years and then every year I will pay with X hours of work, then insurance, gasoline, do not take penalties, but the registration still needs to be paid, sometimes the highway, adding that the car I use to go to work so we step X hours a month, X time for shopping and other committees, then to Milan on average once a week, a few trips in the spring ... hand calculator to elaborate the whole: I dedicate the car two hours of my time each day to go to my 12,000 km per year at an average speed of 16 km / h. Comforting if I compare the results with data from the typical American of '73, disarming if I ask the question: why build cars that reach speeds of up to 200 km/h?