Problem:  We're hooked on automobiles.  Utterly, absolutely, heartbreakingly hooked.

Why We Should Care:  Automobiles are one of the largest single sources of pollution in our nation.  They need frequent fill-ups of an expensive, finite fuel resource in order to operate - a fuel which our country has already found necessary to go to war over.  They contribute to the precipitous decline in our population's physical health.  They cost a lot to maintain.

What We Can Do:  Drive less!  Use your feet or a bicycle for around-town trips.  Sell off your extraneous automobiles and keep only one for your whole family.  You'll save money, pollute less, become more fit, feel better, become more connected to your local community, and still have a vehicle for long-distance use when you need it.  More Solutions.

In Depth:  Automobiles are used around the world.  But no country is as fanatical about automobiles as the USA.  What symbolizes the American dream more than a lonely highway stretching into the distance?  As anyone can see by watching most automobile advertisements, cars have always meant freedom to Americans, and we love them for that.  What's interesting, however, is that automobiles now take up so much of our time, money, health, and resources that one could almost believe they own us, not the other way around.  As you'll see below, there are a lot of good reasons to fall out of love with automobiles... yet we don't.  We are, in a word, addicted.

- Approximately 15 million cars and trucks are manufactured and sold in the US every year. [1]

- There are over 200 million cars on the road today in the United States. [1]

- Approximately 45% of all air pollution is from vehicles - 37% of VOC (Volatile Organic Compounds), 33% of CO2 (Carbon Dioxide), 49% of NOx (Nitrous Oxides), 27% of PM (Particulate Matter), and 81% of CO (Carbon Monoxide) [8].

- Every gallon of gasoline burned produces 19.4 lbs of CO2, a major greenhouse gas. [2]

- Despite the fact that we constitute about 5% of the world's population, the United States accounts for about 44% of the world's gasoline consumption.  At 2003 levels, that means that we use 125,871,114,500 (that's 125 billion, 871 million, 114 thousand, 5 hundred) gallons of gasoline annually [3], or about 345 million gallons every day.

- We can do the math: 345 million gallons a day X 19.4 lbs of CO2 per gallon = 6,693,000,000 lbs of CO2 daily, or approximately 2 trillion, 443 billion pounds of CO2 - a greenhouse gas - released into our atmosphere annually, from USA gasoline use alone, the majority of which is due to our love affair with automobiles.  Wow.

- Smog - the result of the sun's rays reacting with pollutants that come primarily from our automobile tailpipes - is a major health concern in many parts of our country and the world.

- Almost 90% of all trips in the USA are made by automobile, compared to 76% in Canada and 45% in the Netherlands [5].  It isn't that Canada and the Netherlands have lovely weather all the time - for example, cycling rates in the Yukon Territory of Canada are twice that of Southern California and three times that of Florida [6].

- Sixty percent of an automobile's pollution happens within the first few minutes of operation, when the motor is cold and at its most inefficient.

- Forty percent of all automobile trips in the USA are less than two miles long - that is, trips of a few minutes.

- Over 66% of our automobile use is for chauffeuring and shopping purposes - in other words, running errands around town [1].  The majority of the remaining 34% is commuting, while a small percentage is vacation and long-distance driving, and other use.

- Gas prices continue to spiral ever-upwards, yet demand for gasoline continues to rise, even as we complain about how gas prices are breaking us.

- After a period of popularity for small, gas-saving automobiles in the late 1970's through the 1980's, large, unpractical vehicles are on the rise again.  Large pickup trucks and SUVs make up a much higher percentage of automobile sales today than they did 15 or 20 years ago.  Overall gas economy has actually DECREASED since the 1980's, despite higher oil prices, the known scarcity of this finite resource, and increasing pressure from the world community on environmental concerns.

- The average price of a comparative automobile is four times higher than it was 20 years ago (a comparative TV set is half the price it was 20 years ago) [1].

- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average cost of owning an automobile is over $7000.  As Michael Bluejay of Bicycle Universe has pointed out, it is very interesting to convert this cost to time spent to earn that amount of money.  By his calculations, for the average American, it is about three months spent working per year, just to pay for the automobile [4].

- The average commuter spends nearly 10% of their waking hours in their automobile [1].

- During the last decade, as many people were killed in American automobile accidents as were in World War II, the Korean War, and the Vietnam War combined [1].

- Our country is currently at war with Iraq, one of the world's major oil-producing nations, in a thinly-veiled war over control of that infernal crude resource.  Over 4000 American servicemen and women have died, and approximately one million Iraqis have died as a direct result of our ill-advised invasion.  By the most recent estimates, the war will end up costing American taxpayers about three trillion dollars by the end.

- By all reliable accounts, global oil production has reached or will soon reach its peak [7], and prices will continue to rise precipitously until oil is simply no longer available to the general public in future decades.

- Obesity rates are skyrocketing across the nation [9] and are being accompanied by increasing rates of diabetes, heart disease, and other chronic diseases.  Logically, this is at least in part due to our propensity to jump in a car for a trip of under two miles.

Given all these statistics, one would think that we are likely to have all sorts of aggressive programs aimed at conserving resources, subsidizing small vehicles, encouraging non-fossil-fueled means of transportation, and increasing public transportation.  One would also think that we should care enough about our own personal health and its typical precipitous decline to make changes in our auto-centric lifestyles.  This, unfortunately, is not the case at all.  Instead, the American public as a whole seems woefully out of touch with most if not all of the facts presented above, and continues to live in an automobile-structured world as if drugged.  The government does no better and indeed takes such helpful steps as exempting huge 8000-pound vehicles (think Hummer, Excursion, et. al) from fuel economy regulations, while giving tax breaks to business owners that purchase such inane vehicles.  We have reached a critical point here, fellow Americans; we have overstepped not only principled boundaries but practical ones as well.  By not using foresight and acting judiciously while we still have time, we are actively harming ourselves, our friends, family and fellow humans.  We are setting up future generations for a swift and harsh fall.  We are becoming less healthy, and for that matter less wealthy as well!

What is the solution?  As with any problem this large and complex, there is no one solution.  We're not advocating getting rid of all automobiles - we're advocating breaking our absolute dependence on them.  Some of the facts above point to small changes that could make a big difference.  Most automobile trips are short and in town, making for more congestion, pollution, and frustration.  Don't drive around town anymore.  Walk or ride your bike for those trips that are within a few miles of home.  Get rid of a car and only keep one for your whole family.  Buy efficient used cars and don't spend so much on a car payment every month.  If you only use your car for long trips, it will burn fuel more efficiently, cost you much, much less, and you'll be healthier for the walking or bike riding around town.  Check out the Solutions section of this site for more in-depth ways to change your lifestyle for the better.  For our in-depth primer on Bicycle Utility, click here!

[1] http://www.autoserv.com/facts.htm
[2] http://www.epa.gov/oms/climate/420f05004.htm
[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/gasoline
[4] http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/almanac.html
[5] Dr. John Pucher of Rutgers University's lecture on transportation, http://bicycleuniverse.info/transpo/planning-pucher.html
[6] http://www.worldwatch.org/node/5462
[7] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/peak_oil
[8] http://www.nsc.org/EHC/mobile/acback.htm
[9] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20461564/