Driving bounces back

INRIX

From Randal O'Toole:

The mayor of San Diego wants to spend $177 billion expanding the region’s transit system in order to make San Diego like “Barcelona, Madrid, Paris.” Meanwhile, Barcelona, Madrid, and Paris are becoming more like U.S. cities, at least in terms of the transportation habits of their residents. 

Driving is the dominant form of travel in all European cities and is rebounding fast after pandemic lock-downs.

Of course, driving is rebounding faster in the United States according to INRIX estimates. Total driving at the end of June, the entire month of July, and the first week of August was more than it had been in the weeks before the pandemic. Of course, it was the middle of winter before the virus, but that’s still an impressive comeback...

Driving is also back in New York City:

...For a large segment of city-dwelling, taxi-taking, Citi Biking New Yorkers who swore off private transport long ago, the prospect of owning a ride here seemed at best unnecessary; at worst, a colossal and cumbersome time suck.

Cars can also be money pits, and most clash with the green ideals of many a city dweller.

In the early spring throes of bending the curve, like many large cities, New York saw emptier roadways and lower levels of emissions than there had been in decades — and with this, cleaner air. 

But drivers are hitting the road again, and those emissions are already surging back with them. Some are referring to the perfect storm of a mistrust in public transit paired with an increase in car ownership as a “mobility crisis”...

According to data it provided The New York Times, the New York State D.M.V. processed 73,933 original car registrations in the five boroughs over June and July, a 18 percent increase over the 62,507 registrations from the same time last year.

So many New Yorkers are hitting the road that last Thursday, Mayor Bill de Blasio even went so far as to advise them not to buy cars, saying that they represent “the past”...

And in the Bay Area: