Brad Lemaire
Online/Op-ed Editor

Without a doubt cars are useful machines and have greatly amplified our freedom of movement. They’ve become a major touchstone for our culture. For generations, getting a driver’s license was a teen’s rite of passage.

Our communities are not built to make walking, bicycling or transit convenient or appealing so with the exception of public transit, taxi services and logistical transport, I suggest all vehicles ought to be banned from Toronto.

In reality, however, this may not happen: too many cities favour cars over people. Economic policy tends to support the auto industry: too many jobs depend on the auto sector. Canada’s automotive industry represents 14 per cent of the country’s manufacturing output, 23 per cent of manufactured exports, and directly employs more than 150,000 Canadians.

In the economic slump of 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Premier Dalton McGuinty , alongside U.S. President Barack Obama, had an opportunity to let the market deal with the auto industry but they did not – therefore, going against what the market showed – that the business model was broken. This does not come as a shock even though the impetus to bail out the auto sector was political. It was in politicians’ best interest.

So, less cars on the road would result in fewer deaths. Getting to point A to point B is no easy feat for pedestrians. It is dangerous for people on foot these days, I know: at least four times a day careless drivers nearly hit me.

Pedestrian fatalities in Toronto reached an astounding 31 in 2009, and in 2008 the number was pegged at 27. Statistics Canada reported that from 1992 to 2001 pedestrian deaths averaged 416 per year nationwide but decreased 24.1 per cent over the 10-year timeline.

Crackdowns on jaywalking are a popular reaction by authorities because it seems to encourage road-safety while suppressing illegal behavior. Driving is a privilege not a right even though some people think driving is a right.

It seems the high number of pedestrian deaths is an acceptable amount for cars to remain on the road. Let’s face it, we’re resistant to change and the problem is not trivial, it is systemic. We’re all in comfort zones and we have no desire to change. We are all guilty in the end. Drivers should not complain about traffic jams, rising fuel costs and exorbitant insurance premiums, or parking fees – this is the price we pay for our automobile dependent convenience.

These machines, cars, have become our masters. India’s auto market grew by 27 per cent in 2009 to 2010 and is projected to increase between 18 to 20 per cent in 2011, forecasts by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufactures forecasts. Meaning it is too late for even that society to rebuild communities around people, not cars.

Building cities around the car is no longer a sustainable model and must change. It is time to design the city around people and sever society’s auto dependence.

The benefits in such a shift of policy cannot be overstated. The simplest answer to the dominance of the automobile in our lives is to design our communities for people, not cars.

Stop telling lies, and let’s start today. It can’t always be about convenience and money.