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Category Archives: Freedom

Why People Choose Cars, Even When Mass Transit Would Serve Them Better

Monday, February 4th, 2013 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Eric Jaffe at The Atlantic Cities

People don’t always make rational decisions. The entire field of behavioral economics, with all its colorfully named biases and heuristics, is based on our irrationality.

Go ahead and add cars to the illogical list too. In an upcoming paper in Transport Policy, a group of Italian researchers report that people show an irrational bias toward automobiles — they call it the “car effect.” Instead of considering all travel modes and choosing the one that saves the most time and money, people prefer to drive even when it’s not the best objective option.

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How I Survived Breaking Up with My Car

Wednesday, December 19th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Erin L. McCoy at yesmagazine.org

car-driving-byjoseelorza-555.jpg

Where I grew up, owning a car was a necessity rather than a choice, and where it’s not a choice it can quickly become an emblem of pride.

But when I moved to Seattle a few months ago, I had a choice for the first time. I decided to sell my car and try a life without it—though it shuddered to an unsurprising halt before I had the chance to sell. Considering I already couldn’t park it on hills (where it refused to roll any direction but down), it wouldn’t have survived Seattle anyway.

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Photo Exhibit Showcases Experiences of Non-Driving Youth

Tuesday, August 7th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

A new qualitative study of Auckland youth, led by the Adolescent Mobility Health Consortium (AMHC), suggests that young people who participated in this PhotoVoice exercise who do not drive cars choose buses, trains, cycling and walking mainly because they are more affordable and convenient transport options.

The study participants took photographs as a way to communicate their experiences. The purpose of the project was to create discussion about transport issues that was generated by the participants themselves. A selection of participant photographs will be on display at the Avondale Community Library in Auckland through September and can be seen on our PInterest channel.

Read original media release here.

Editors Note: Did you know even by age 19, less than a third of New Zealand teenagers have their full drivers license? (Source: Motor Vehicle Register, NZ Transport Agency)

Underwear Protest on Wellington Trains

Wednesday, May 30th, 2012 | warai03p | No Comments

Original article by Michael Forbes, at the Dominion Post

Generation Zero – Young people at work on Transportation Choice!

There were more than a few raised eyebrows on the train from Ngauranga to Wellington today as 40 young people did the morning commute in their underwear.

They were part of a youth environmental group called Generation Zero, which fights for climate change action and inter-generational justice.

Group organiser James Young-Drew, 22, said the stunt was designed to launch their 50:50 campaign, which is protesting the government’s plans to spend $14 billion on highway projects over next decade but not nearly as much on ”smart transport options” such as light rail, buses and cycleways.

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