Choose Your Delusion

Human beings have always been prone to self-deception. Sometimes it's social, sometimes it's speculative, sometimes it's religious. Richard Dawkins has done a demolition job on The God Delusion. But what possible connection could there be between this and cars? If Dawkins is right, there is No God. But there are about 600 million cars on the planet.

What is The Car Delusion?

Cars are ubiquitous and omnipresent. Their number is continually growing. Cars dominate our thoughts, our policies and our planet. The macro consequences of the car for our towns, cities, countryside, and the planet, are well known: ask any environmentalist. 

The Car Delusion is not about the planet. It's about the Faustian pact made by everyone who owns a car. It's not about the noise and pollution and the death and destruction that our cars impose on everyone else. It's about how the person who owns a car turns a blind eye to the effects of that car ownership - on their own life.

The Car Delusion is about how owning a car car means that you are more likely to be overweight, hard-up, unfit, and stressed - owning a car might even mean that you have less time, are more dependent and are less happy. Never mind the planet, The Car Delusion is about the downside of cars for everyone who owns one.  

Fatter, poorer, less healthy

The Car Delusion has many facets: it can be the Cash Delusion, "Being skint is nothing to do with owning a car." Or the Weight Delusion, "I may be heavier than I'd like to be, but that has nothing to do with my car." Or the Fitness Delusion, "If I'm unhealthy it's nothing to do with owning a car." 

This book examines the evidence for these and other elements of The Car Delusion, and what car ownership could mean for you. You might read it, consider the evidence and decide that the benefits outweigh the costs. At least then, you will be making an informed choice. At least then you won't be subject to The Car Delusion.