My Car, My Crutch (Editorial) from Planning Pool
Recently I read an outline for a friend’s thesis on the use of vehicles as a prosthetic component of the human body. Her argument, still in development, is predicated on Rebecca Solnit’s belief that “the car has become a prosthetic… for a conceptually impaired body or a body impaired by the creation of a world that is no longer human in scale” and that walking has become an “indicator species for various kinds of freedom and pleasures”.
My experience with my car merges comfortably with the typical negative statements made about vehicles, such as disassociation with community and the natural world, and increased material consumption. However, life with my car has also been reflective of the many freedoms it allows me: escape for the weekend or access to nearby cities or other areas to which transit does not provide admission, to name a few.
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