WHY AMERICANS LOVE THEIR CARS
The Bureau of Transportation Statistics of the USA reports that based on their statistics on a 107 million US households, there is a median of 1.9 trucks, cars, jeeps, or sport utility vehicles (SUVs) per household. In each household, there is an average of 1.8 drivers. Working out this figure will result to 191 million motor drivers and 204 million motor vehicles.
According to Robert Land, the director of Virginia Tech’s Metropolitan Institute, [I]” This is the final realization of the entire American ethos…There (is) a real love of the road.”
The author of “Commuting in America,” Alan Pisanski, said “(America)[ii] has added more cars than people for the last two decades and the average number of people per household has been declining.”
Various are the reasons as to why vehicles in the USA are burgeoning. The main reason among these is that the number of income-earners in one household in America has been on the rise. These income earners usually drive their own car separately to work. Adolescents who have their own personal cars are on the increase, too. Families are finding SUVs amenable to weekend get-aways and leisure time.
Vehicles are also more durable. Compared to before when automobiles were scrapped if their odometers register 100,000 or even lesser miles, present cars can still be driven 200,000 miles or even more.
Furthermore, since cars are more durable, ten- year old second-hand cars are astonishingly more obtainable in the market because of its low cost price.
American middle class families characteristically have three vehicles in their households. A couple has one car each which they use for work, and a family SUV or a pickup. They usually use the cars with more mileage per liter of gasoline during weekdays, but they use their gasoline- gobbling sports vehicle on vacations and holiday breaks.
It can be said that the Americans’ love affair with their cars has restructured their neighborhood and communities. Taking into consideration parking spaces for their motor vehicles, many localities have already substituted the districts’ apartment buildings to suburban subdivisions.
A person averages three to five trips daily, half of which are used to run errands and for buying necessities in the groceries and malls.
A Surface Transportation Policy Project, a group that supports balance in transportation, stated that [iii](Americans) are taking many short trips (they) used to make on bike or foot”.
A survey conducted by the Transportation Department of the USA in 2002 found out that 91% commuters drive their own motor vehicles. In the survey, it also showed that only 8% of American households have no cars or any form of transportation.
Fear of terrorism also added to the increase of sport vehicle utilization. Holiday merrymakers and vacationers would rather ride cars than planes. A survey conducted by a travel research firm, D.K. Shifflet & Associates revealed that commuters who used land vehicles instead of other modes of transportation rose to around 85% in 2002 from 83% in the year 2000.
Another survey by Lube International said that higher than one-third of people they surveyed, mostly US adults, said that they have civilized their bonding with their personal vehicles by praising, cheering, and even saying sorry to their SUVs, trucks and cars. They encourage their cars verbally, stroke the wheels or the dashboards to have a smooth trip, and, not to give them problems or stall on the road. They even say thank you to their vehicles for a nice, safe journey and a trip with no motor problems.
[iv]“A car is a part of the American’s dream of freedom, wealth, and mobility,” based on the statement of an urban studies expert, Professor Michael Dear, of the University of Southern California.
The cities of America have been planned and designed for the convenience of its human populace and their vehicles. The citizens live far away from their jobs, from entertainments, and the shops. The suburban way of living would fall down if their vehicles will be taken away.
[i] www.usatoday.com
[ii] www.usatoday.com
[iii] www.usatoday.com
[iv] www.guardian.co.uk
Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com
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