This guest post by Sarah Jackson originally appeared on her website (sarahjackson.ca<\/a>)\u00a0<\/i>on April 19, 2013<\/i>.\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n LET’S TALK ABOUT… CARS<\/strong><\/p>\n For those of you who know me even remotely, you know that I don\u2019t like cars.\u00a0<\/strong>I\u2019m talking pretty much everything about them: car culture, car ads (ESPECIALLY car ads), the way they look, the way they feel, driving them, the whole kit and kaboodle. My ears and eyes immediately zone out. Classic example: one time a friend came to pick me up at my place and I saw the white car out front, opened the door, got in. Turned to face the driver. Not my friend.\u00a0Yup, I got in the wrong car because to me a white car is a white car.<\/em>\u00a0Audi what? I actually get angry at the time I must waste flipping through pages of car ads to get to the interesting stuff.<\/p>\n So, I was just listening to\u00a0Q on CBC radio<\/a>\u00a0and one of the topics they discussed was how the auto industry gets women wrong. HA!\u00a0That\u2019s<\/em>\u00a0an understatement. But it got me thinking. If you want to design cars for women (i.e. 50% of the current adult population) YOU SHOULD HIRE WOMEN TO DESIGN THEM. And not just any women, but women who currently loathe cars. Women who would rather ride a bicycle. Women who would rather\u00a0walk<\/em>. Women who can\u2019t tell the difference between a white Audi and a white Rabbit not because we are stupid\u00a0but because we are so bored by them that we don\u2019t care<\/em>. I don\u2019t actually know if a \u201cRabbit\u201d is even a brand of car or a car style! I might be spelling Audi wrong! Secretly,\u00a0I kind of hope\u00a0I am.<\/em>\u00a0We are at the far extreme end of a demographic you can\u2019t reach, that will spend thousands of dollars having a custom bookshelf built for their studio apartment, has a driver\u2019s license, lives in freaking oil-central\u00a0Alberta<\/em>\u00a0for godsake, but \u2013 yes \u2013 still doesn\u2019t own a car. They say you should design for the extreme ends of your demographic, and \u2026 yup, just checked, that\u2019s pretty much me.<\/p>\n So pay attention, car company moguls.<\/p>\n No gas, no ugly gas stations!<\/strong>\u00a0First of all, my perfect car (obviously) wouldn\u2019t run on gas. You\u2019d think it\u2019s because the gas industry is dirty and bad for the environment \u2013 which it is \u2013 but my distaste for it runs deeper than that. First of all, gas smells awful. Noxious. Also, the place you have to buy it is awful: gas stations contain all the same elements that I dislike about fast food restaurants. You\u2019d think I avoid fas food chains because of the food, but really I avoid them for their cheap, boxy design that supposedly says \u201cfast and functional!\u201d but really just says \u201cobnoxiously bright and ugly\u201d. Fluorescent lighting in the stations, the dingiest bathrooms you\u2019ve ever seen in the great nation of Canada.\u00a0No shelters from the wind and rain while you\u2019re paying\/pumping\u2026 seriously, gas stations within themselves are depressing enough to make me not want a car.<\/p>\n The perfect world would have my bath water drain directly into my car\u2019s tank, running through my dishwasher and laundry machine along the way. This would also give my car and the roadways a lovely, fresh tangerine scent that pedestrians and urban folks would greatly appreciate. Old gas stations could be transformed into urban caf\u00e9s until they\u2019d detoxed long enough to become urban gardens.<\/p>\n Also, in view of water conservation and tank size, surely our wizardly engineers can come up with some way to give us double the mileage on tangerine water, with a tank half the current size? Because the second thing on my Perfect \u00a0Car list is\u2026<\/p>\n The tiny, foldable car with titanium strength.<\/strong>\u00a0Part of my issue with cars are their huge, lumbering size and weight. Especially in North America: so ridiculously large and\u00a0unwieldy, and difficult to park in urbanized areas. Part of what I love about my bicycle is that it\u2019s so manageable.\u00a0I can pick it up<\/em>. I don\u2019t know why that\u2019s so important to me, but it is. My perfect car would have the size, cuteness and light weight of an old\u00a0Austin Mini<\/a>, with the unbendable strength, durability and lifespan of titanium. It would also be foldable, so that (to park) you only need fold it to half its size in a few easy, smooth steps (car companies, if you\u2019re looking for inspiration,\u00a0check out this space saving foldable furniture<\/a>). Parking stalls could be reduced to scooter-size, meaning more people will be able to find parking, less cursing and driving around searching for parking stalls, more business for downtown restaurants and stores, etc. It also means I could fold up my car and park it at a bike rack in a pinch, or store it in my basement when not in use.<\/p>\n Speaking of bicycles\u2026<\/strong>\u00a0cars are not great exercise. I\u2019m just saying, maybe a Flintstone-esque pedaling option would be nice when you need to get some cardio in during a longer commute. It would also help save on tangerine water.<\/p>\n Get rid of the glare!\u00a0<\/strong>Really, we can come up with non-glare eyeglasses that are practically\u00a0invisible<\/em>, but for some reason car windows still reflect midday sun like alien death rays. Also, what is up with how REFLECTIVE cars are? Who made THAT fashion decision that\u2019s survived through the ages?? Being able to SEE is perhaps the most important thing while driving, but every car on the road is a shiny, metallic surface that reflects light directly into your eyes, ready to blind you at the most inopportune moment. Their glare gives me headaches, both sitting in cars and walking by as a pedestrian. My perfect car would definitely be\u00a0matte<\/em>\u00a0(it\u2019s like we\u2019re all driving around the fashion equivalent of\u00a0this<\/a>\u00a0every day, and are delusional enough to think it looks good. Seriously.).<\/p>\n Pleasant textures.<\/strong>\u00a0My perfect car would have the nice, soft feel of a brushed cotton shirt.<\/p>\n REAL horse power.<\/strong>\u00a0Now, if you ask me (which no one did) I would not say that the real power of a horse is in its\u00a0speed<\/em>: I would say real \u201chorse power\u201d is in\u00a0its trainability and brains<\/em>. Ye old cowboys could whistle and have their mode of transportation trott right up to them. A horse could also neatly avoid obstacles in their path (such as streams and fallen tree branches) without any prompting from their master. I was so excited when I first heard that a SMART car was coming out. Finally! A car that comes to me when I whistle and can avoid obstacles and park itself!! Oh. How disappointing. It\u2019s just a smallish, ugly, shiny car. That doesn\u2019t run on tangerine water.<\/p>\n There are so many other things I would want such as\u00a0a purse\u00a0console and woman-sizing\u00a0<\/strong>(this Q\u00a0radio episode<\/a>\u00a0covered both of these topics pretty well). But perhaps this is enough for the car industry to absorb for now. ALSO you guys should hire me for a few weeks to pick my brain for great ideas \u2013 yes, car designers and companies, I\u2019m talking to you. Trust me, there\u2019s more where\u00a0this<\/em>\u00a0came from. If I see a car in the future that folds in half and smells of tangerine I\u2019ll know whose blog you were reading in 2013\u00a0(although in terms of foldable designs,\u00a0these guys<\/a>\u00a0are off to a good start).<\/p>\n In the meantime \u2013 I guess I\u2019ll keep riding my 1940\u2032s bicycle and spending my money on lattes and bookshelves.<\/p>\n Sarah Jackson is an Edmonton-based illustrator, designer, thinker and strategist. When not coming up with fantastic design ideas for clients or musing about how to make cars less objectionable, Sarah can be found creating stories about jam and peanut butter<\/a>, which she vends at the Royal Bison Craft + Art Fair<\/a>, and the Art Gallery of Alberta<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"