Thursday, September 05, 2013

Americans still love their cars

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.


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4 Comments:

At 11:19 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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....

 
At 10:14 AM, Blogger Rob Anderson said...

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."

 
At 1:14 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

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.

 
At 6:16 PM, Anonymous Vince said...

"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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