Reliance on Motor Vehicles

The average American travels 59 kilometers (37 miles) per day. People do not travel aimlessly; their trips have a precise point of origin, destination, and purpose. In the United States, 19 percent of trips are for work, 10 percent for school or church, 27 percent for social and recreational activities, 21 percent for shopping, and 22 percent for personal errands. In the United States, 83 percent of trips are by car or truck, 12 percent are by walking or biking, 2 percent each are by public transport or school bus, and 1 percent are by other means.

Transportation Epochs

Transportation improvements have played a key role in the changing structure of urban areas. Geographer John Borchert identified five epochs of U.S. urban areas resulting from changing transportation systems (Figure 13-62): The Sail-Wagon Epoch (1790–1830), the Iron Horse Epoch (1830–1870), the Steel Rail Epoch (1870–1920), the Auto-Air-Amenity Epoch (1920–1970), and the Satellite-Electronic-Jet Propulsion (1970–?).

Transportation Epochs

Cities have prospered or suffered during the various epochs, depending on their proximity to economically important resources and migration patterns. At the same time, cities retain physical features from the earlier eras that may be assets or liabilities in subsequent eras.

Benefits & Costs of Motor Vehicles

There are 1.3 billion motor vehicles in the world, including 275 million in the United States. The United States actually has more registered motor vehicles than licensed drivers. Motor vehicle ownership is nearly universal among American households, with the exception of some poor families, older individuals, and people living in the centers of large cities such as New York.

Motor vehicles offer two principal benefits:

• Comfort, choice, and flexibility. Motorists can live wherever they wish and travel whenever they wish. They are not constrained by the timetable of public transport service. A motor vehicle offers comfortable seats, choice of music, and isolation from strangers on a bus or subway.

• Perceived cost. Motorists perceive that the cost of using vehicles is less than the cost of using public transport. Each time public transport is used a fare must be paid, and the fare is higher than the cost of fuel, at least in the United States. Most of the costs associated with motor vehicles, such as insurance and license, are paid on an annual basis, regardless of the amount of driving that is actually done.

Motor vehicles incur environmental costs beyond their purchase and operation. These environmental costs are rarely noticed by motorists. The motor vehicle is an important user of land in the city. An average city allocates about one-fourth of its land to roads and parking lots. Multilane freeways cut a 23-meter (75-foot) path through the heart of a city, and elaborate interchanges consume even more space. Valuable land in the central city is devoted to parking cars and trucks, although expensive underground and multistory parking structures can reduce the amount of ground-level space needed. European and Japanese cities have been especially disrupted by attempts to insert new roads and parking areas in or near the medieval central areas.

The average American wastes 19 gallons of gasoline and loses 51 hours per year sitting in traffic jams, according to the Urban Mobility Report prepared by the Texas Transportation Institute. In the United States, the total cost of congestion is valued at $160 billion per year. But most Americans still prefer to commute by vehicle. Most people overlook these costs because they place higher value on the privacy and flexibility of schedule offered by a car.

The use of motor vehicles is supported by policies that keep the price of fuel below the level found in Europe. The U.S. government also encourages the use of cars and trucks by paying 90 percent of the cost of limited-access, high-speed interstate highways, which stretch for 77,000 kilometers (48,000 miles) across the country. However, some cities have demolished freeways that once sliced through CBDs, including Boston, San Francisco, and Seoul. For example, Boston’s Central Artery has been replaced by a park .

Freeway Demolition

Boston’s Central Artery freeway was demolished and replaced with an underground freeway and the Rose Kennedy Greenway. (a) Central Artery in 1990; (b) Rose Kennedy Greenway.

Pause & Reflect 13.3.4

Referring to details from this section, explain why you think the United States should either continue to encourage the use of motor vehicles or invest more in public transport.