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.
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.
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.
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.
That’s nonsense. Nearly everyone under 18 needs transportation.
America isn’t Europe, but just like in Europe, most American trips are really short