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Cars have long been touted as the ultimate symbol of “freedom.” This is a delusion.

Ask my dad what a car symbolizes: “It’s freedom!”

But does this “freedom” hold up under scrutiny?

It’s no surprise that freedom ain’t free. According to The National Post, the average Canadian spends $16,644 per year to own and operate a new car. That’s after-tax dollars, of course, so an even more accurate measure is to think that about $21,600 of your pretax salary feeds the four-wheeled beast (30% tax rate).

Given the average Canadian salary of $72,800, this means you spend 65 workdays—25 percent—working for your car.

Combine that with the average Canuck driving 15,200 kilometres per year, and a rough average rate of travel of 60 km/h (50-50 city/highway), it means not only do you spend 65 working days feeding it—you spend the equivalent of 32 eight-hour workdays stuck inside it.

Is that really freedom?

In the city, folks have more transportation choices—but parking minimums still require space to be allotted to vehicles regardless of actual demand. This unnecessarily pushes people into car-centric lifestyles, which creates more forced-demand, which requires cities to prioritize cars… and the vicious cycle continues.

Not freedom, folks. That’s a trap.

This is amplified in the suburbs—where car-centric design requires households to have a multitude of these $16K-per-year monsters (ask any suburban parent about their driving habits). I know a family who collectively drives more than 100,000 km per year. That’s 73 days imprisoned in a car.

But in the rural regions, it’s the worst. My dad will tell you he couldn’t live without his car—and he’s right. Everywhere is a drive away. He mistakes this for freedom.

I remember because I grew up there. Cars didn’t offer any freedom to me as a kid. They were a burden—I had to beg my parents to drive me anywhere. And for them, it was worse. How much of their lives did they spend trundling us around, from rugby practice, sleepovers, errands…? We were 30 minutes from everywhere. We had three to four cars in operation at any given time. It never ended.

And when I finally got my licence, my car represented my first real financial burden and source of true stress. I had to sacrifice my weekends to a part-time job just to enjoy this newfound “freedom.”

And as you age, it gets even more dire. Because we’re all just one failed eye test away from losing the “freedom” we spent a lifetime defending. Next stop, the old-folks home and the “freedom” of a shuttle bus.

This is complete and utter dependence.

Not freedom. Not even close.