How come most europeans can get rid their car and North Amerians can't?

Question

How come most europeans can get rid their car and North Amerians can't?

Answer 1

Individuals aren't pressuring their cities and state governments to expand public transportation.

Answer 2

In fact we can, we're chosing not in our choices of urban design. If this bothers you find out how you can get involved in the political structure of your city and county. Lobby for better urban planning and mass transit.

There is a drawback to a walking transit urban design plan though and that's redundancy. If every job was close enough to walk to you would need many times more facilities that do the same things.

Answer 3

During WW1 or 2,  General Motors became the big main car industry. They realized that they were loosing money because of good big city public transportation. So, they bought all of these city transit systems and put them out of business. This is kind of the start of answering your question.

Answer 4

Europeans tend to live in cities.  A large number of Americans live in suburbs.  It's impossible to put together an efficient public transit system when Americans are so spread out.  Public transportation works in a clustered population, not one that is spread out over hundreds of square miles.  The home I grew up in was in a nice neighborhood but 3 miles from the closest bus stop.  It would take me longer to walk to the bus stop than to just drive to wherever I needed to go.  

When they first installed light rail in Denver, a lot of people tried it.  You would drive to the rail station and take the train into town.  The problem: the parking lots were full by 6:30am each morning.  If you were any later than that, you couldn't park so you ended up just driving to your destination.  For me, the closest light rail station was 3/4 of the way to my school so it wasn't really worth it to get there super early, fight for a parking space, and save a tiny amount of driving.  

Also, automobiles are part of the American culture in a way that is different from Europe.  Americans treasure the feeling of "jumping in the car for a road trip" or "just getting away from it all by taking a drive."  Americans also place a premium on personal space.  They don't like sitting on a bus next to a stranger when they can have their little bubble of personal space in their car.  We also don't like the feeling of relinquishing control to another driver or being dependent on another's schedule when we want to go somewhere.  We like that instant gratification of running to the store whenever we want.

I live about 10 miles from my job and it takes me about 20 minutes to get there in the morning.  There is a bus stop just down the block from my apartment.  I live on major roads.  If I took the bus in the morning, it would take me 75 minutes to get to work according to the bus schedule.  That means that taking public transportation would cost me almost two EXTRA hours of commute time on a daily basis.  (extra 55 minutes each way)  I don't have that kind of time to waste.  I'd have to get on the bus about the time I get up each morning.  I also work a lot of unscheduled overtime which means that I'd have a difficult time getting home from work and have to wait extra for a bus.   I'd rather keep my car.

Answer 5

Have you been in Europe? You can walk from North end of Europe to South end in one day just using just your legs. Try it in US.

Answer 6

Many more trains in Europe with lines going all over. Not so in the US. Also, you can driver though 3-4 or more countries in Europe in one long day of driving.

Takes a day of driving to go from north to south in Illinois and many states are much bigger. Almost impossible to reasonably compare the two locations. Our country is huge but if there were trail lines going just about everywhere, I'm sure there would be less cars.

You'd have huge expensive getting all this done of course and huge upkeep. Our way of life is very different with rural, suburb, urban etc. Europe has more people in major areas.

If you want to stay in your home communtiy and never leave, you might be able to get rid of your vehicle also. Unless you commute or want to go somewhere there is no train, or walk for your groceries and get them daily so you can carry that one bag a day..

Answer 7

Smaller countries where everything is closer together and they have good train service and public transportation.  While in North America the countries are huge stuff is very far apart and public transport is spotty.

Answer 8

Unlike Europe we don't have a mass transit system that can get us everywhere we want to go when we want to go there.

Answer 9

The cities are much older...sometimes thousands of years older.  The countries are much smaller.  They usually have good to decent public transportation.  People live one on top of the other, in crowded cities, not spread out in suburbia like the U.S.

You can pretty much walk anywhere you need to in the European countries, or ride a bus, or train.

~Garnet

Permaculture homesteading/farming over 20 years

Answer 10

It is the way our city's are layed out. We have industrial parks we have housing. We have people living 70 + miles from work. I worked in the states second largest city for the largest employer 10 miles away (I lived near a bus line). If I took the bus it took 90 min to get to work and 105min to get home. A bike was much faster!

Answer 11

Well, Europe is not as small as some people might think, but they have a very good functioning public transportation system. You really don't need a car (if you are organized and have enough time). And to tell you the truth, most of the time you can do your daily shopping within walking distance. And on the other hand, it is not very economical to pay $ 10,-- per gallon gasoline. They pay at the moment 1.45 Euro Dollar per liter (a cup more then a quart) at the pump. This is for me enough reason, to sell my car, and walk.