I was busy for a while and owe you a long letter, which will be split to parts. Any account of American life is incomplete without discussing transportation. For me transportation means moving from a place to another and back, but the psychological relation of Americans to cars is much deeper. It is like the relationship of desert people to camels or Indians to cows. Cars are the modern holly animals. For instance, about half of the TV commercials advertise cars, even in programs for kids. In this culture the US Democratic Party is completely archaic, having a donkey logo instead of a minivan.
When Americans ask for a photo ID, they usually mean the driving license. The driving license is the ID. In some rural parts of Canada, people can acquire their identity at age 16 to go to school. Ontario has stricter policy. The problem with driving licenses is that in order to become capable you need experience, but to gain experience you need a license. The system here has two road tests. The first is an easy one, and gives new drivers a limited license. After a year they can take the harder test. Foreigners are required to take the second test, since road signs here are different.
Ontario drivers are better than Israelis. They control the car better, keep distance from the car in front, they are courteous and yield to pedestrians before they get to the curb. However, out of the 12.6 million Ontarians, every year 800 people die in car accidents (40,000 in the US). This is lower than Israel, but not drastically. Note that driving conditions here are more difficult. Canadians drive twice the mileage. They drive in the winter, in snowstorms and on icy, slippery roads (Canadians cannot let the winter defeat them. When there is a snowstorm, they will wake up two hours earlier to get to work on time). Canadian drivers are allowed to use cell phones, and you can even see bikers with one hand on the phone. Studies found drivers on the phone to be as dangerous as slightly drunk drivers, which are another problem. There is also an issue rooted at the American value of freedom. For many people freedom is a synonym for speeding. I know some of you are also appreciating your freedom in Israel, it is just that here there is a bit more space to express it at 160kph or faster.
Cars are a huge business. Ontario has Ford and GMC factories outsourced from Detroit. Both cars and gasoline are relatively cheap. Many families have at least two cars. Unlike Israel, where many cars are white, Canadians have a strong preference for silver or black. Maybe it is Ford’s influence, but I suspect white cars are not visible enough in the snow. However, they do have white car plates, which seems to Israelis as if they are all from the United Nations. The car plate belongs to the car owner, which gives people even more space for self expression.
In most parts of Canada you can stop wherever you like, but in downtown Toronto there is a serious parking problem. A special parking police enforces the complicated parking laws. Many houses have their own garage, which means they don’t have to dig their cars out of the snow in the mornings. Recently I read about a company offering cities a parking reservation system. The clients will reserve online (or by a cell phone) an empty spot at the time and place they wish, the same way people book hotels and flights. This will abolish searching parking physically, and maximize parking revenues for municipalities. Until that happens, the greatest thing about cars in downtown Toronto is living without them.
(To be continued)
