As I was driving home from the first Whit meeting of the semester, I came across a German Shepard moving through the street next to a stopped car. 

I realized quickly that the dog had been hit as she made her way to the side of the road to lie down. I pulled over to try to help and ended up sitting with the dog and a man who stopped to help while the owner ran to get his truck to rush his pet to the vet. 

I don’t know what ended up happening, whether the dog could be taken care of in time or not, and the incident has affected me since. 

I know it sounds ridiculous since it wasn’t my pet, but it’s just the truth. I’ve avoided driving when not absolutely necessary and I still haven’t taken that same way home from campus since that evening.

The main way this has impacted my thinking is that it reinforced my belief that cars are a major danger and there should be more options for transportation.

Cars are so ubiquitous that I don’t think we take stock of how dangerous they actually are often enough. Most people getting behind the wheel every day are not professional drivers, driving around other people who are also not professional drivers. With public transport, those operating the bus or train have to be specifically licensed for a vehicle of that size and power and likely have years of experience. Individual cars are different, in that driving skill and experience range greatly, and a standard license can cover anything from a tiny Volkswagen Beetle to a massive lifted pickup truck. 

According to a USA Today article on the data, though the rate of fatal car accidents is less than 1% of the number of total car crashes, that still results in almost 40,000 fatal accidents per year. 

New Jersey is one of the safer states for car travel compared to other states, having the fourth lowest rate of crash fatalities in the country, however, it does not erase the national issue.

As far as pedestrian fatalities, the Governors Highway Safety Association estimates that there were about 7,500 pedestrians killed by vehicles in 2022, the highest number since 1981 and up from 6,300 in 2019. 

While fatalities on public transport are up in recent years, the numbers still don’t compare to the number of deaths caused by being on the roads. The number of public transportation deaths in 2022 was 339, a far cry from the nearly 40,000 people killed in auto accidents. 

Due to this data, I believe that this country needs more widely available public transportation options. 

I’ve never liked cars or that there’s no practical way for me not to have to drive to most places I need to go without driving. With where my house is located in relation to campus, the office where my internship is housed and my workplace, buses are uncommon.

Even when they are in the area, bus stops are so far from my house and the locations I need to get to that I would spend more time walking on roads that have no sidewalks or only small stretches of sidewalk than I would on the buses themselves.

Walking is also not realistic, due to the aforementioned lack of sidewalks, if not the distance in and of itself.

Passenger trains are also not widely available in the area either.

While this is all just my personal experience, I know that there are plenty of people in this area and other areas, whether they be suburban, rural, or urban, that do not have access to walkable streets or safe and reliable public transportation.

According to the 2021 Report Card For America’s Infrastructure, 45% of Americans have no access to public transportation, and even those who do are often dealing with aging and underfunded transportation systems. 

This means that for the most part, people are being forced to drive if they have obligations like work and school, or have to do everyday tasks like pick up their kids or grocery shop. 

I’m not suggesting that cars should be banned or that no one should drive. That’s not a realistic proposal. 

But as a culture, we should be more cognizant of just how much we’re putting on the line every time we get behind the wheel. And as a country, we need to make more options available in more areas, for those like me, who would prefer to not have to drive everywhere they have to go.

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