Whoever in the US thinks this isn’t as bad as it seems because of ‘less need’, ‘less square miles’(WTF?), ‘healthy public transportation’, ‘higher household income’ or ‘high taxes’, should do a little research.

The only sustainable things I can say about these prices in Europe, is that they have been relatively high for decades (compared to US), which has slowly but steadily forced car manufacturers to offer more economical models, people to rethink their driving behaviour, city planners to adjust, etc.

But still(!), the car is the nr 1 mode of transportation in ANY European economy, i.e. Europe as a whole.

Me? I haven’t owned a car in 10 years, don’t miss it and I’m biking my way to retirement. :)

Besides, we tend to have to drive much, much more around here. Back when I lived in Boston and DC, I didn’t drive more than 3,000 miles a year. I moved to Texas, and I’ve already put 10,000 miles on the car in six months. I have friends in the empty states (such as Wyoming) who have 2 hour commutes each way. While my friends in the UK (and I have a couple) have to pay quite a bit more in gas prices, their commutes tend to be shorter.

There’s also cost of living to consider. The average American household makes about $31,000 a year. The average UK household makes 33,000 pounds a year, which is (guesstimating here) $55,000. People in those countries tend to make more and pay out more (think housing prices) because of it. That may sound mean, but consider this: in my dad’s home country (Bolivia), the minimum wage is $70/month. His family’s wealthy as hell down there, but when they move up here, they’re middle class (funny story: my cousin bought a ranch in the middle of nowhere, miscalculated how much building supplies in the US cost, and thus couldn’t afford a house to put on his land).

And that is why I’m looking into getting a scooter. 90mpg sounds nice, doesn’t it?

I personally do not have a car, because I walk or take the excellent bus system everywhere. Not all of our cities have a good public transportation system, though. LOTS of smaller cars and scooters though.

As with any commodity, demand dictates price. If fewer people drove (or more drove smaller cars etc), therefore using less gas, the price would go down. Simple economics, really.

I understand why some people want to go universal in transportation, but I sometimes wonder if they really think it through. How do you get frozen groceries home on a bus that has to make a dozen stops before you are in walking distance of home? If you have a long commute, what time do you need to be at the local stop so you can get to work on time? How many times do you change buses/trains to get to where you need to go? How many people have to be hired and how many new transit vehicles have to be built? What happens to the old infrastructure of road and rail? How do the initial costs impact everything? How is this sustained, and how difficult is it to integrate new technologies?

Gas prices have gotten high, and concern over the possibility of “climate change” has people even more on edge. But seriously, could we even begin such a process? Until such questions, and more, are answered, I think it is a fool’s errand to start talking national public transportation in the US.