Real people prefer cars.(Beware the AUTOCRATS)

Defenders of the automobile argue that it is the most convenient and flexible transportation mode yet invented, giving people a degree of social and economic opportunity and autonomy unprecedented in human history. Critics, however, have a different view, insisting Americans have an irrational love for their personal vehicles. They claim this results in a range of social and economic ills--pollution, congestion, long commutes, injuries, obesity, dependence on unstable oil-producing countries, burdensome road spending, high family transportation costs, and suburban sprawl. The reliance of Americans on automobiles is not a choice, they claim, but a necessity forced on people by public spending priorities and development patterns that require a set of wheels for most daily travel.

Is this accurate? The claim is not so hard to test. If Americans were being forced into suburbs and driving against their will, we would expect transportation and land use to look quite different in other countries with different policies. Yet people all over the world are choosing suburban lifestyles and automobile-based transportation as soon as they become wealthy enough to afford them. In Europe, for instance, automobiles currently account for 78 percent of all motorized travel, while public transit accounts for 16 percent--despite $5-per-gallon gasoline and high auto-related taxes, as well as widely available public transportation.

Transit's share of European travel dropped 35 percent from 1970 to 2000, and continues to decline. As a proportion of person-miles traveled, public transportation declined 14 percent in London, 24 percent in Paris, 60 percent in Frankfurt, and 19 percent in Stockholm in just 15 years. Europe's old central cities are now surrounded by suburbs that look very much like their American counterparts. In developing countries as well, people are choosing driving. Demand for automobiles is rising faster than income in the Third World, despite poor roads and high levels of traffic congestion.

People choose automobiles the world over because no other form of transportation comes anywhere close to providing comparable speed, flexibility, privacy, and convenience. Even in congested central cities, automobile travel is much faster than public transport. When comparing automobile and transit commutes within the same U.S. metropolitan areas, the average transit commute takes about 75 percent longer than the average automobile commute, even though each covers roughly the same distance on average. New York, with the densest population and best public transit in the U.S., also has the longest average commute time.

Automobile travel is much faster in Europe as well. For example, auto travel in French cities is, on average, 80 percent faster than trips by transit. Many Americans are under the impression that Europeans travel a great deal on trains. But in 2000, rail accounted for only 7 percent of all passenger-miles of motorized travel in Europe, and the largest portion of this took place on inter-city and commuter rail. The urban subways and trams that come to mind when thinking about how Europeans get around their cities actually accounted for only 1 percent of European passenger-miles in 2000.

Enabling wealth and happiness

Even without referring to other nations, the claim that Americans have had cars forced on them does not stand up to scrutiny. By 1930, Americans already owned an average of three automobiles for every four households. We embraced automobile travel long before there were interstate ...