According to the U.S. Department of Transportation, approximately one-third of the nation’s residents don’t have driver’s licenses. In her 2024 book “When Driving is Not an Option: Steering Away from Car Dependency,” disability advocate Anna Zivarts argues that not only is America’s car-centric infrastructure harmful to the climate, it also fails to meet the everyday needs of many Americans.
20% of Americans are children under the age of 18 and so don’t need to drive…
So the other 66% are driving.
That leaves only 14% of people who refuse to. I’d say that’s a pretty good reason to have a car-centric nation.
This isn’t Europe where everything is within walking distance of you, and it’s infeasible to do such a thing here in America.
No, 66% having a drivers license, doesn’t mean 66% drive. And even those who usually do, can’t drive all the time. There are a lot of reasons why you might be unable to drive, even if you have a license: Being drunk, being sick/injured, being to old to safely drive, being to tired to safely drive, being to broke to afford the gas…
And even of those who do drive, a large percentage might not drive because they want to, but because they are forced to drive due to a lack of walking, cycling and public transportation infrastructure.
It doesn’t matter how big your country is. Nobody in their right mind drives from New York to San Francisco on a daily basis, not even from New York to Philadelphia.
The vast majority of commutes are from your home to the local school, the local supermarket or the local workplace within the same town. A distance that could easily be traveled by bike if there was any bike infrastructure even in today’s US cities. Granted, the distance you have to travel to get to these places is usually bigger in the US, than in Europe, but that’s only because you don’t have mixed neighbourhoods. And you don’t have mixed neighbourhoods because every little convenience store needs to be surrounded by 200 acres of parking because you can only get there by car.
Your childhood must’ve been very different from mine! I needed to get places as a kid, like school, friends’ houses, stores, parks, the library, and more.
@SwingingTheLamp @kitnaht In a functional community, kids can get to all those places by walking or biking. Sorry your parents raised you in sprawl hell instead of a real neighborhood.
Ah, but that’s the issue highlighted in the article: Most of the United States is not a functional community.
Seriously, people get so triggered and come in here saying the most ignorant shit. It’s actually worse than the vegan communities for how often it happens.
That’s nonsense. Nearly everyone under 18 needs transportation.
They still need a way to get around any transport would make that easier
And transport still needs what…think that through a little more…
The roads for mass transit are the same as they are for individual transit…and they aren’t specialized, they’re universal. A small car, bike, bus, or semi can all drive on the same road.
A train track can only be used by a train. Sidewalks can only be used by pedestrians and maybe bikers.
A road however – can be used by all shape and size of transport; including the transport that the last 14% need.
Sure, a bike can use the same roads cars are using. Have fun with that.
Btw. a train track can be used by cargo trains, passenger trains, trains carrying cars, trains carrying bikes, etc. If you build decent bike lanes, they can even be used by ambulances to skip traffic.
This doesn’t seem like a good-faith argument, because this is a pre-schooler’s take on transportation issues. Anybody with a passing familiarity with roads can see the holes in it.
Rails & trails. We have spent the last 50 years building “one more lane” to solve traffic & all it does is incentivize more cars. Roads don’t promote high density travel like a proper bike network in a city or a commuter rail network to connect suburbs together.
America isn’t Europe, but just like in Europe, most American trips are really short