Americans still love their cars
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| Checking It Out, 1958 |
From Randal O'Toole's blog, The Antiplanner:
USA Today asks, “Is USA’s love affair with the automobile over?” The Antiplanner is always irked when someone calls people’s use of cars a “love affair,” because it implies that driving is irrational. In fact, people’s use of cars is entirely rational, as they are the fastest, most-convenient, least-expensive of getting between most places inside of an urban area as well as for journeys up to a few hundred miles.
Ironically, USA Today quotes a study from the Department of Transportation (previously cited here) that pretty much concluded that the very slight (2.4%) decline in driving since its 2007 peak was almost entirely due to the economy and not a change in tastes. USA Today pretty much ignores that conclusion so they can underscore opinions by car-haters from US PIRG who want to divert even more highway user fees to transit and other modes of transportation.
We learned yesterday that sales of American cars are at a six-year high.
And Americans are satisfied with their cars.
Labels: Anti-Car
posted by Rob Anderson @ 12:41 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
We learned yesterday that sales of American cars are at a six-year high.
So what you are saying is that people bought more cars seven years ago than they are buying today....
Because of the Great Recession, not because Americans are buying the anti-car propaganda from the new urbanists.
O'Toole, by the way, was on to the "smart growth," anti-car bullshit long ago with his book "The Vanishing Automobile and Other Urban Myths: How Smart Growth Will Harm American Cities."
Because of the Great Recession, not because Americans are buying the anti-car propaganda from the new urbanists.
The recession is over. The S&P reached an all time high last month.
If car sales were lower over the last 6 years than this year, that would indicate a lot of pent up demand. The end of the recession coupled with this pent up demand should equal record sales. It did not.
"The recession is over. The S&P reached an all time high last month."
Great news for the 1% of the population that owns 50% of the stock. I understand luxury goods are a booming business!
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