Dear Editor
In response to "My two cents worth " (News-Optimist, April 2) Parking is not a fundamental human right. We are not entitled to park our giant automobiles wherever we want and take up precious public space for hours at a time just for our personal convenience, especially in the context of downtowns and their revitalization efforts.
It is this falsely privileged attitude in society that has been created and groomed by the complete dominance of private motor vehicles over the last century. Cars are bad for cities.When will people learn this?
Should you be expected to change your transportation habits or your lifestyle overnight, without a change in urban infrastructure first? No. But you should be expected to demand, of your cities, not free and ubiquitous parking, but instead properly designed cities that do not cater to the automobile, making public transit, walking, cycling or any other non-invasive transport method more convenient than private motoring. If that seems hard to imagine on today's city streets, that's because it is.
Our streets directly cater to private automobiles and almost nothing else, and this is why driving a car is so easy and normal, and other modes (walking, public transit, cycling) are not. A change in our streets and our expectations of them must occur first. And that will only occur when you and I demand it - demanding free, ubiquitous parking is a wasted, misguided effort.
An enjoyable and healthy urban area is one that is enjoyable and healthy for people, not cars. We are not our cars, no matter what advertisers might have us think. Enjoy "car culture" for now, the future of private automobile dominance is grim indeed.
There is academic field all its own, called urban planning or urbanism and it has a great depth, filled with surprises, that are worth exploring.
L. Smith
Saskatoon
