[pf] Moms and cars

by Fitzsimmons, Diane

15 December 2000 22:03 UTC

Received through another list.  The full column is at
http://www.alternet.org/beta/print.html?StoryID=10224


Sprawl: Soccer Moms' Public Enemy #1
Linda Baker, AlterNet
December 14, 2000
 
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I hate to drive. I'm also the mother of two young children, ages three and
five. A few years ago, if you'd asked me what the former had to do with the
latter, I'd probably have responded, grumpily, that I wasn't looking forward
to shuttling my kids to music lessons,            soccer practice and
friends' houses five days a week. Only recently have I realized how
inextricably connected driving and motherhood really are. And in the
process, something personal -- chauffeuring my kids around town -- has
become something political:           understanding the deleterious effects
of an automobile centered society on women, children and the institutions
that sustain them. 

According to a study released last year by the Washington D.C.-based Surface
Transportation Policy Project (STPP), spread out development caused mothers
with school aged children to spend more than an hour a day driving. Whether
they work or not,           women with kids now make as many as five car
trips a day, 20 percent more than the average for all women and 21 percent
more than the average man.