Comments on: For 14th Month In A Row, Americans Drive Less — Will The Trend Last?

By: Stats Whiz Takes Crack At Explaining Why Americans Are Driving Less » INFRASTRUCTURIST

Thu, 07 May 2009 18:55:53 +0000

[...] we’ve speculated about on this site recently–maybe there is some kind of cultural shift at work [...]

By: Highway Deaths Fall To Lowest Level Since JFK Administration » INFRASTRUCTURIST

Mon, 06 Apr 2009 15:31:13 +0000

[...] we learned (and kept learning), that Americans are driving less. Then we found out that traffic congestion is down a whopping 30 [...]

By: Lourdes

Lourdes — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 03:55:33 +0000

“As we’ve learned recently, even very small reductions in miles driven can have outsized effects in reducing traffic congestion, which is a good thing for everyone.”

So you want to punish other people for driving, in the interest of reducing traffic congestion?

I don’t like heavy traffic either. I am in SoCal and it is no picnic here. But that doesn’t give me the right to try to control anybody else’s freedom of movement.

By: admin

admin — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:18:26 +0000

LAofAnaheim -

A couple thoughts:

I suspect a solid majority of Americans now agree that driving less is better. The key point is that nobody wants that to happen because 600,000 more people each month are sitting at home on their couches watching the Price Is Right and eating Fiddle Faddle instead of commuting to work. It’s like losing weight because you have some terrible disease — the good is kind of outweighed by the bad.

(Ryan Avent speaks to this point well in a post from yesterday.)

Additionally, Americans still log 98% of their travel in cars. So there are probably limited rewards in trying to label them as inherently bad.

-Jebediah

By: FT.com | FT Energy Source | The Source: 20 years since the Exxon Valdez; enzymes for ethanol; Americans drive less; a reprieve for European power companies

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:16:44 +0000

[...] are driving less [...]

By: LAofAnaheim

LAofAnaheim — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:26:12 +0000

Why do we hope people drive more again? Don’t people care about pollution and global warming? This should be celebrated and we should continue to promote the development of alternative transportation. We always talk about “changing your light bulbs to flourescent will remove 60,000 cars off the road”. Thus, isn’t driving less a good thing? We need to focus on developing walkable areas so people get healthier and are involved in their communities. The cars keep us isolated from other human interaction.

By: Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines

Streetsblog » Today’s Headlines — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 15:16:18 +0000

[...] Driving Declined in January for 14th Straight Month (Infrastructurist) [...]