Book Review: A Love Once New Has Now Grown Old

Fourth in an occasional series

Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile.

By Katie Alvord, New Society Publishers, 2000.

From the start, “America’s love affair with the automobile” was a sweet seduction from infatuation into long-term commitment. The phrase first appeared in a Chevrolet ad the year I was born. But are Americans in love with their cars – or married to them? How many unhappy partners would walk away if they thought they could?

That’s the sustained analogy at the heart of Katie Alvord’s Divorce Your Car! Published three years after Jane Holtz Kay’s Asphalt Nation, it covers some of the same paved ground in tracing the historical roots of the automobile saturation we live with and increasingly take for granted. Marriages come in all shapes and sizes; some are happy, many are not. Half of them end in divorce.

But it’s also written from personal experience. Alvord divorced her car in 1992. She discovered, as I did in 2007, the drawbacks and unexpected benefits of not owning a car:

“Almost everywhere, cars dominated. With fewer facilities provided for walkers, cyclists, and transit riders, I sometimes felt like a second-class citizen.

“On the plus side, I immediately noticed that I had cut my expenses and was saving money. I got more exercise, my health improved, and I dropped a few pounds without watching what I ate. My stress level went down and I slept better at night.”

The book is copiously researched and annotated. Like Asphalt Nation, it’s divided into three parts. Part One, “Love is Blind,” traces the history of our relationship with cars, from that first quickly forgotten inkling that something is wrong, to the hard truth that love has morphed into addiction. The second part is titled “Grounds for Divorce.” It lays out the now-familiar abuses: to the environment, our health, our wallets, our well-being, and our friends and family members killed or injured in car crashes. Part Three, “How to Divorce Your Car,” addresses the most practical question: Even if I want a divorce, how do I go about getting one, and will I be okay afterwards?

Alvord answers that last question enthusiastically in the affirmative, encouraging involvement in your local neighborhood infrastructure issues, and activism on the national and global fronts. The author photo shows her on a bicycle with a trailer, her back partially turned to reveal the words on the back of her shirt: ONE LESS CAR.

I want one of those shirts to wear when I’m on my bicycle. But the world has changed in the 26 years since the book’s publication. The streets of Maine have grown meaner, as they have almost everywhere else. There’s a new belligerence in the air. Most drivers would see the shirt and shrug or even smile, but a few might find it negatively provocative. Every cloth has its fringe, and unfortunately, there are some drivers on the road I would rather not provoke.

From time to time, Slower Traffic reviews published books about taming the car culture. Previously reviewed books in the series include Asphalt Nation by Jane Holtz Kay; Life After Cars by Sarah Goodyear, Doug Gordon, and Aaron Naparstek; and How to Live Well Without Owning a Car by Chris Balish.

COMING SPRING 2027 from 12 Willows Press!

Slower Traffic the book. Watch this page and my social media: facebook.com/slowertraffic