Part 2: American Dependence: The Carnage of American Car Culture
Much of the United States has been engineered to rely on cars, but at what cost?
Part 2: Personal Life
Last month, I highlighted the impacts of American car dependence on the built environment and public realm (if you have not read it yet, please see here). Now, in part two, it is time to get personal.
First of all, I own a car (gasp!). But I do so begrudgingly. I love having access to a transit network in the Twin Cities, which I utilize frequently, but I feel the development patterns of the Upper Midwest region coupled with my household’s lifestyle require car ownership. I wish they did not, and I will die on the hill of being a one-car family for eternity.
My owning a car is not unique. As of 2021, over 90 percent of U.S. households owned at least one vehicle and over 22 percent owned three or more, which equates to over 278 million registered vehicles on U.S. roadways.[i] Over 15 million vehicles were purchased in 2021[ii] at an average price of $47,000[iii], meaning Americans spent $705,000,000,000 (yes, 705 billion) on cars in one year. Considering that the ongoing cost of owning and maintaining a car is approximately $1,000 per month, the cost burden of personal car ownership is immense; however, the automobile industry has taught American society that car ownership is a life necessity. [iv]
In the late 1940s and early 1950s, a map was developed to determine routing of U.S. interstates. The main authors were auto industry stakeholders and highway engineers: folks interested primarily in efficient car movement, not the vibrancy of cities. One of the key decision-makers was Charles Erwin Wilson, CEO of General Motors, who later went on to become President Eisenhower’s Secretary of Defense and was famous for stating, “[what] was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.” As discussed last month, the routes determined by the auto industry stakeholders resulted in detrimental cuts through the core of nearly every major American city.
During the construction of the interstate system, the automobile industry successfully characterized roadbuilding as the public’s responsibility, coining the term “free roads,” which evolved into the term “freeways.” Ironically, there is no such thing as a free road; “free” means that taxpayers pay for it.[v] Today, there tends to be a perception that highways are somehow self-funded, but most interstate costs are paid by you when you fill up your car at the gas station through gas taxes. Additionally, general taxpayers, not necessarily motorists, are continuing to pay an increasing share of the direct costs of highway construction, repair, and maintenance. Even if you do not own a car and do not drive, your personal finances are playing a role in subsidizing auto-centric America. At a very general level, American households contribute over $1,100 per year to support road construction and repair, expenditures related to vehicle crashes, and subsidies for gas and commuter parking, regardless of if you own a car or drive (this figure does not include anticipated costs for car owners, such as personal car payments, gas, insurance, etc., which, as stated above, is approximately $1,000 per month). [vi] While cyclists benefit from quality road construction and maintenance, personal vehicles are the majority user (and majority reason for repair). The combined costs of the general taxes spent on highways, the tax subsidies enjoyed by drivers, and the external costs driving imposes on all Americans are substantial.
While the personal financial costs of car culture are immense, the direct safety risk of driving is also staggering. 38,824 people died in motor vehicle crashes in 2020 in the U.S. (over 105 people per day, on average). [vii] According to the National Safety Council, driving is one of the most common causes of death, just below typical medical and health conditions that can develop with age. [viii] Consider the risk Americans expose themselves to daily, just by getting in a car, regardless of age. Over six million car accidents occur every year, which is over 16,000 car accidents on average per day. [ix] It is a choice, a preventable risk to make yourself vulnerable to this threat, and it can be eliminated from life based on habits and housing decisions.
Full disclosure, I have not always disliked cars. Being raised in Southern Minnesota, I grew up aspiring to drive, both for freedom and status. In middle school, I had a magazine subscription to Car and Driver and attended the Twin Cities Auto Show several years in a row. As I aged, it occurred to me that the affinity I had for cars might not actually be about the car, but about the freedom of movement. And the reason I loved cars was because they were the only option for me to move freely, which was a byproduct of the development pattern of my rural Minnesota hometown. This experience is common for many children growing up in rural and suburban U.S. communities.
As I fell into the urban planning rabbit hole in high school and college, it became clear that cars are the capitalist solution to a problem that was human made. Without the Federal-Aid Highway Act, “urban renewal” and displacement, highway routing through vibrant urban areas, and land use separation and sprawl, the American culture of car dependency may have never flourished. Now that the damage is done, it is time to shift the paradigm. We have a professional obligation to build human-focused spaces that are accessible to everyone, and a personal opportunity to change our car-focused habits. Next time you grab your keys and head out the door, ask yourself if you can make the trip by walking or biking instead. Are you overly dependent on your car?
Would you like more information on American car culture? Check out The War on Cars.
[i] Forbes, Car Ownership Statistics 2023: https://www.forbes.com/advisor/car-insurance/car-ownership-statistics/
[ii] https://www.marklines.com/en/statistics/flash_sales/automotive-sales-in-usa-by-month-2021#:~:text=Total%202021%20full%2Dyear%20sales,to%203%2C424%2C888%20units%20for%202021.
[iii] Car and Driver, New Car Price Keeps Climbing: https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a38748092/new-car-average-sale-prices-47100/
[iv] New York Times, The Rising Costs of Owning a Car: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/22/your-money/car-ownership-costs-increase.html
[v] Peter Norton, Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City
[vi] Who Pays for Roads? Public Interest Research Group Report
[vii] Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Iihs.org
[viii] National Safety Council, Odds of Dying - Injury Facts (nsc.org)
[ix] Driver Knowledge, https://www.driverknowledge.com/car-accident-statistics/
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