[sustran] !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! America's love affair with the motor car is running on empty !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Sujit Patwardhan patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
Mon Jun 18 01:35:43 JST 2012


14 June 2012





http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2012/jun/12/america-motor-car-transport?CMP=EMCENVEML1631




America's love affair with the motor car is running on empty


   - David Burwell
   - guardian.co.uk <http://www.guardian.co.uk/>, Tuesday 12 June 2012
   11.53 BST


The country once wedded to driving is having its eye turned by other forms
of transport – but policymakers are oblivious
[image: Inline image 2]
 The number of miles driven by the average American has fallen since 2000.
Photograph: Joe Baraban/Alamy

America's love of driving is iconic. The open road is a central
manifestation of America the free. During the 20th century, the total
movement of cars and trucks on our national roads and highways grew as fast
as our economy, or faster. Movement – measured by total vehicle miles
travelled (VMT) – was considered an unqualified blessing. In the 1960s each
American drove about 5,000 miles a year in a car, van, or truck. By 2000
that number was 10,000 miles. Which means we are twice as well off – right?

Wrong. In the early years of the 21st century, something very interesting
happened. Individual vehicle travel in America lost its glamour – and its
connection to economic growth. In 2003 when VMT was 2.9 trillion miles, US
gross domestic product was just under $11tr. In 2011 GDP passed $15tr while
total vehicle travel was still about 2.9 trillion miles. In 2011 alone GDP
went up 1.5% while VMT went down 1.5%. VMT per capita is receding as well,
with each American now travelling less than 9,500 miles annually.

America is not alone. The UK has experienced similar trends, with a 13%
drop in annual trips by cars and vans since 1996, and a 4% reduction in
annual distance travelled over the same time period. The ratio of vehicle
miles travelled to GDP in the core EU 15 states has dropped by more than
10% since 2000.

There are a number of explanations for why VMT is no longer growing at the
same rate as GDP. Demand for shopping and business trips has slowed as
these activities are increasingly conducted electronically. Internet-based
social networks are fast replacing hanging out at the mall as a teenage
pastime. Then there is the cost: fewer young people can afford car
ownership – the cost of insurance, fuel, and maintenance on even a used car
is simply too high.

Transportation policy has been slow to respond to this change in the way we
prefer to travel and, at times, actively resists the shift in customer
demand for cheaper, cleaner, on-demand travel choices. Forecasters continue
to predict 1.6% annual increases in vehicular travel demand as far as the
eye can see – and are designing road and highway expansions to match. The
Congressional Budget Office still links travel demand (and thus fuel tax
revenues) directly to GDP growth. Earlier this year House leaders in
Congress tried to strip funding for transit, bicycling, and pedestrian
travel from the Highway Trust Fund, causing a backlash within their own
ranks that forced them to drop a floor debate on the measure.

In the absence of policy leadership, Americans are taking matters into
their own hands. Baby boomers are giving up the suburbs for communities
with more travel choices. Younger adults are delaying getting a driver's
licence and, when they do, they are not buying cars or using them as much.
Instead, they are embracing new forms of "collaborative consumption" –
sharing vehicles through car-share and bike-share programmes. New "smart
apps" allow users to identify travel options to places they want to go on a
real-time basis, then guide them to the nearest available vehicle – whether
bus, car, bicycle or train – to get them there.

All age groups appear to be moving toward mixed communities where schools,
businesses, residences, and shops are in close proximity – even walking
distance.

Failure to recognise this sea-change in travel behaviour leads to massive
misallocation of scarce infrastructure capital. If vehicular travel is, as
it seems, decoupling from GDP growth, then transportation investments
should respond by supporting a much broader array of travel behaviour than
driving, including bus, bus rapid transit, shared ride services, cycling
and safe pedestrian travel.

America still stands for freedom – but it is no longer just the freedom of
the open road. Freedom to multitask while we travel. Freedom to access
social networks, buy goods and services, and conduct business without
sitting in traffic. Freedom to live in clean, healthy environments. In such
a world, planning to accommodate more and more driving when the customer is
signalling a desire for new transportation services makes no sense.

The stagnation in VMT growth is an important indicator of how lifestyles
are changing in America. It's about time our legislators designed
transportation policies that suit our needs in the 21st century.

• David Burwell is the director of the energy and climate programme at
the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace <http://carnegieendowment.org/>.



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*Parisar*

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Sujit Patwardhan
patwardhan.sujit at gmail.com
sujit at parisar.org <sujitjp at gmail.com>
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Yamuna, ICS Colony, Ganeshkhind Road, Pune 411 007, India
Tel: +91 20 25537955
Cell: +91 98220 26627
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Blog: http://motif.posterous.com/
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