Americans Drive A Lot

Via Krugman:

Americans only make 11% of our trips outside of an automobile. Much of that may be habit and/or the fact that driving (especially in a quality vehicle) is seen as part of the “American experience”. But the lack of a viable alternative in most of the country would factor in heavily. Many of our towns and cities were designed around the assumption that people would be driving cars (spread out, few bike/walking paths, etc.). Gas prices are going to keep increasing and unless a quality fuel alternative becomes widely available (and affordable) pretty quickly, efforts will need to be made to get that number in the first column down.

Tags: automobile, gas prices, Paul Krugman