Who knew that Randy Cohen, a guy who spends most of his day analyzing right and wrong as the New York Times Magazine's acclaimed "Ethicist," turns out to be one of New York City's most captivating and articulate voices for Livable Streets.
The Open Planning Project's Executive Director Mark Gorton recently interviewed Mr. Cohen on the ethics of urban automobility. The result has been condensed here into a 9 minute talk that touches on a multitude of topics ranging from Congestion Pricing to Parking Policy.
StreetFilms hopes this inspires even more debate as we approach these issues from the angle of personal responsibility. We think you'll enjoy this.
<br>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[intro music]</font> <br>
</p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [00:06]
I’m here today with Randy Cohen who writes the Ethicist column in
the New York Times magazine, and we are going to chat a little bit about,
maybe the ethics of transportation. How did you get interested
or involved in transportation?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [00:21]
Ethics primarily concerns itself with the effect of our actions on other
people, especially when you live close together. In a city it’s
very easy for one person’s actions to have a profound effect on one
another, and it seemed to me what was significantly undermining the
ordinary daily happiness and health and economic life of both me and
my fellow New Yorkers was the private car. We’re becoming a
nation of fatties, in part because if you live anywhere but a few cities
and you want a quart of milk, you have to take the car. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton</i>: [00:56]
When I got my first full-time job, I lived in Washington DC and I commuted
practically out to Baltimore, and it was about a 50 minute drive everyday,
each way. And I don’t think… you know I did this for two years,
I don’t think it occurred to me for a moment that I was doing anything
wrong. And now recently, you know, I’m much more conscious of
my actions and every time I get in a car I kind of think about the consequences.
So what are the things that people are supposed to be conscious of?</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [01:23]
If you leave these kind of decisions to matters of individual moral
choice, we’re… I think there’s no solution possible. For
two years you were a recent sophisticated educated person aware of your
world, you were doing actions that now seem questionable to you.
If we leave it to individual moral choice, here’s what people will
do them. They’ll buy SUV’s. Yes. There’s no
law that says you have to buy an inefficient car, or that you have to
buy a car that’s particularly vile, there’s moral implications to
rely on, by which I mean SUVs are more likely to harm other people than
other cars. But if we as a culture, as a country, as a society
are capable of making wise policy choices.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [02:03]
I know people who live in the city who drive around the city to do,
you know, even the simple errands. What’s wrong with that? </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [02:11]
Everything. But the word we ethicists use to describe the kind
of the… the philosophy of your friend is espousing. That’s
called being selfish. What’s wrong with it is they knock me
down when I ride my bike. What’s wrong with it is they pollute
the air. What’s wrong with it is the fumes from their cars destroy
the façades of the buildings. It imposes this tremendous expense
simply to maintain the roads. And it’s particularly vile, morally
indefensible in New York City where there’s excellent mass transit.
There’s absolutely no need for the private car in Manhattan.
Other parts of the city it’s a more ambiguous problem. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [02:47]
Right now one of the big issues is congestion pricing. And the
people who oppose it talk about it in terms of individual rights. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [02:54]
It would be misleading to say wise policy decisions never restrict individual
freedom, they do. What’s civilisation is is the restriction
of individual freedom. We have, for instance, fire codes.
You can’t build your apartment out of kerosene soaked cardboard because
it endangers other people. We have a thousand laws that restrict
what an individual can do because it is singularly destructive to the
larger community. This one is an interesting policy in that so
many members from the community so overwhelmingly gain, and the unfortunate
consequences of the restrictions and freedom are so tiny and it’s
so exciting because we have actual examples of two major modern cities,
London and Stockholm, where there was much objection to the plans, similar
congestion pricing plans before they were introduced. And now
we can see, we can look and see well did it work? That’s great,
that’s pragmatism. And it seems to be quite a popular plan in
both places now.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [03:52]
I was talking to someone who had talked to several assembly members
about this particular issue. And one of the things that they commented,
all the of assembly members have placards which allow them to park wherever
they want, illegal or legal. They all drive around the city almost
exclusively. Their personal experience skews their judgement cos
you tend to think everyone is like yourself.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [04:19]
I think that’s true. In order to just do… to be good at your
job, whether you’re a legislator or an administrator, you have to
have a real intimate knowledge of how your decisions affect ordinary
citizens. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [04:29]
Just about every elected official and a good fraction of the government
workers in this city are given these placards. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [04:37]
A blight on the landscape. And after such incivility, an act that so
undermines what ordinary democratic ideals. The legal use of it
is bad enough, the abuse is truly astonishing, that there is on my corner
a car that has been parking two or three times a week for the last…
I’m guessing five years. This fellow parks both with his front
wheels in a crosswalk so that he’s only a little bit too close to
the fire plug, with a police permit on his dashboard. It is of
course illegal for him to use that police permit in that way.
It’s a kind of permit that only allows you to park close to the precinct
when you’re going to work. It’s a demoralising bit of petty
corruption and cronyism with no traffic enforcement officer will ticket
this guy. I think to the Mayor’s credit, he’s spoken forcefully
about this and that to limit the number of these permits. He does
not seem to have followed through very well on it. I like the
Mayor in many ways. But he also has his shortcomings and one is
I think this. That he’s talked a good game about this and I
believe he’s actually cut down on the number of permits given, but
I see very little evidence that he’s continued this.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [05:46]
I think the biggest problem with a city based on the automobile is actually
invisible. It’s the city that you don’t see. The city
that could be if it wasn’t that way. It’s a city where kids
are playing stickball and where, if you’re a parent, and your four
year old walks out on the sidewalk you’re not terrified that they’re
going to go four more feet into the middle of speeding traffic and things
like that. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [06:08]
Yeah. We can have a kind of Jane Jacobs neighbourhood, neighbourhoods
that are less dangerous, less threatening, where you can quite easily
walk to work, where you can see your neighbours, where kids can play.
One of the interesting challenges in the city is that public space,
open space, is really at a premium, there’s very little of it.
And you have to make wise decisions about how you will allocate it.
If any place where there’s free parking on a New York City street,
you go, why is this good for the city that you get to store your personal
property in public space? I don’t take my summer clothes, pack
them in a foot locker and leave them at, you know, out in Central Park.
Why are we allocating a four foot wide strip down both sides of West
End Avenue, a lovely residential area, why is that free parking for
cars? Why is that not two rows of trees? Why would that
not be better for the city? </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [07:02]
Part of what you said is that as a society we want to set up incentives
for people to do good things. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [07:08]
Yes. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [07:09]
And so with biking, if the city says, you know, biking is a green form
of transportation, it’s good for your health, you know, all those
sorts of things…</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [07:16]
Terrific. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [07:16]
So then you have to make it safe. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [07:19]
Absolutely. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [07:19]
And you have to make a real…</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [07:20]
And to me you have to have some place to put your bike when you get
to work, some place where maybe you can even take a shower every now
and then, but many cities seem to have that with this problem in terrific
ways and we can do it too and it’s actually what… I hate being optimistic
cos it’s really… but it’s true. We’re in a moment in New
York history where both the Department of Transportation and the wonderful
Janette Sadik-Khan… she seems terrific, the Mayor seems genuinely
sympathetic and he seems to have other administrators in place who have
an analysis of the city, it’s quite sad, there is reason to be hopeful
about biking.</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [07:57]
Every now and then you get a glimpse of what the city could belike otherwise…</font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [08:00]
Yes. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Mark Gorton:</i> [08:01]
It’s like one of the… I don’t know if you remember when there’s
a big blizzard or something and traffic is absolutely paralysed, and
again you could just walk out, like I mean in the middle of the 5<sup>th</sup>
Avenue or something like that and you’re like, wow, what a fantastic
city this is. Or when there was the blackout and kind of traffic
is paralysed. Whenever that happens, people come out on the street
and you see what could be. </font></p>
<p> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"></font></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman"><i>Randy Cohen:</i> [08:21]
Yes. People interact in ways that seems to make everybody much
happier. This is not… again, we’re not preaching rectitude
here, we’re preaching hedonism. What we’re talking about how
people can be happier, I think that the capital age in just the ordinary
happiness of daily life, that the automobile maybe the greatest crime
[unintelligible 08:41] to, it affronts that. It undermines our
ordinary daily happiness in ways we’ve even ceased to notice.
That’s truly sad. </font> <br></p>
<p><font size="3" face="Times New Roman">[music]</font> <br></p>
http://transcriptdivas.ca/transcription-canada/
Clarence Eckerson Jr. has been making fantastical transportation media in NYC since the late 1990s. He's never had a driver's license and never will.
Pingback: Streetsblog » The Trafficist: An Interview With Randy Cohen()
Pingback: Transportation Ethics | Cycling in Ottawa | Watching bike and transportation issues in the National Capital()
Pingback: Video: The Ethics of Transportation « SF Biking()
Pingback: Cranked Magazine()
Pingback: “Morally Indefensible” Motors at meatmachine.info()
Pingback: Web Echoes()
Pingback: “We’re becoming a nation of fatties… in part because if you want a quart of milk, you have to take the car.” « Zero Per Gallon()
Pingback: Streetsblog » The Streetsies: 2007 Awards()
Pingback: Pages tagged "transportation"()
Pingback: Randy Cohen, on Why It’s Wrong to Drive in New York City « La Marguerite()
Pingback: http://www.streetfilms.org/archives/transportation-ethics/()
Pingback: Streetfilms | Biking around town with Randy “The Ethicist” Cohen()
Pingback: Today’s Headlines | Streetsblog California()