J. G. Ballard Quotes

The car as we know it is on the way out. To a large extent, I deplore its passing, for as a basically old-fashioned machine, it enshrines a basically old-fashioned idea: freedom.

I don't have a car and have decided never to own one.

In March 2005, I was appointed to the board of the Santa Barbara metro transit district. I was incredibly optimistic about how public transportation can be the solution to help people live in the city and not need a car.

Cities offer us powerful leverage on our most stubborn, wasteful practices. Long commutes in our cars, big power bills from our energy-hogging buildings, shopping trips to buy stuff that'll spend a few short months in our homes and long centuries in our landfills.

I don't think people are going to switch over to bikes because it's good for them or because it's politically correct. They're going to do it because it gets them from A to B faster.

I live up Laurel Canyon, and if I want to walk with my son, I have to drive to the park, which is so insane to me.

I don't run a car, have never run a car. I could say that this is because I have this extremely tender environmentalist conscience, but the fact is I hate driving.

I am not suggesting that just by taking the Metro, I will save billions. But I hope others will follow.

Millennials aren't buying cars anymore. They don't want to drive. They don't want to own these cars. They don't want that inconvenience.

We could live in a much better society if there was less personal car ownership.

This walking business is overrated: I mastered the art of doing it when I was quite small, and in any case, what are taxis for?

I go on the bus, I walk. A friend left his car recently at my house and I took it out one day just for 15 minutes and it was terrible. You know why? I felt like I was back in LA again. Four or five years ago, when I had a car and I had been out of the city I wouldn't feel I was back until I got in the car, you know. But now I feel off the grid. I feel that I am not part of the culture. And because I don't have a car I don't really go anywhere to buy things. In fact, I have been in a slow process of selling and giving away everything I own.

We need to stop flying, stop driving cars and jetting around on marine recreational vehicles.

Every person that you can get on a public transportation vehicle is one less person polluting the air or taking up space on our highways.

S.U.V.'s are under a lot of scrutiny these days, and yet the S.U.V. buyer is a very loyal lot.

Our cities are not polluted or congested because they have to be. They are what they are because that's how we made them.

I think that I am responsible for the death of thousands of things and for the misery of thousands of people, just through the things that I buy and how I live my life, and these are not things that ever deserved to die.

Public transportation is like a magnifying glass that shows you civilization up close.

I avoid using plastic bags.

I grew up in L.A., and it's one of those cities designed around cars instead of the people that live there. I spent hours every day stuck in traffic, having the experience of looking around and seeing one person in every car.

I hate cars; in terms of what they do to nature and personally I just don't like driving them. I think they're a very bad way to design a transportation system.

Automobiles are fun and exciting. We need them. They are a part of our lives.

I have a car, but I don't use it very much - only when I go for my shoots - so the carbon footprint is tiny.

Our goal was to completely change transportation. Change traffic. And make it possible to get anywhere you want to go without owning a car.

While many of us use beauty products every single day, we fail to recognize how much waste this can actually create if the empty bottles aren't recycled.