It always amuses me that a majority of American life is lived on the road. For all the pleasures of the free and the brave, they love their little cages..
We don't have high-speed rail, and public transit is reserved for only the most densely-populated cities. We don't drive because we want to, or because we're stubborn, or because we don't know any better. We drive because for all intents and purposes it is the only reasonable method for getting from point A to point B.
But don't worry, I'm sure you've still got plenty of other reasons to feel smugly superior.
Distances aren't big because "but America is so big!", they are because cheap gas enabled people to live hours away from their place of work or everyday infrastructure in some suburb. If we would properly price gasoline for the collective damage its consumption causes, this nonsense would disappear tomorrow (and Teslas would be sold out, because you know, they have none of these problems).
For the past decade everyone's been balking at the rising gas prices, and so far as I know no two places have magically become closer together as a result.
Want to go to the grocery store? That's about 7 miles away. Want to do some general shopping? That's 6 miles away. Want to go to an actual mall, with a variety of stores? That's 20 miles away.
I get not wanting to stay in a car for 40 minutes each way on a weekly commute, but being trapped in a city like LA or San Francisco with no access to the boundless natural beauty and adventure would cause me to go nuts. Hipster coffee shops and artisanal food only do so much for my sanity.
I am saying, you shouldn't be doing it every day. That, right there, is one of the unhealthiest lifestyles, for everyone.
The average American spends an hour a day in their car. This number changes over the years, of course, but generally Americans spend a large portion of their lives, consuming gas. Its just built into the nations life-lines at this point.
Weekend trips with the car would be great! Alas, thats not how America uses its cars ..
Are you American? Your perspective seems a little overgeneralized than reality. Don't get me wrong gas consumption is certainly an issue here. Hopefully Tesla drives the auto industry in the right direction.
An aside...personally, I spend...8 minutes (or less ) in a car each day.
In SF, you can always to take the ferry to Marin.
Norway has a population density about 1/10th of the US (to get away from the "but the US is so big" argument that inevitably comes up), yet when I lived in Oslo, I could stroll along the main central city streets, and catch light rail to pretty much the middle of the woods in 20 minutes, regular rail to the central mountain massifs in a few hours, or a bus to the beach in 15 minutes.
That only works because of heavy investment in public transport over decades, probably in part because car ownership became common much later - Norway wasn't particularly wealthy until the oil revenues started pouring in in the 70's. Culturally the car has never gotten the same position as in the US. Even households that have 2-3 cars will often rely on public transport for commutes.
There'll always be areas where not having a car is impractical because of density - not everyone can sanely get away with not having a car in Norway either; and there's always be places that will be tricky to get to without a car - whether rented for the trip or your own. But the US is in the current situation because you've favoured the car for so long that everything is geared for it.
Of course it's self-perpetuating. I've spent quite a lot of time in the Bay Area, without a drivers license (never bothered to learn to drive as I've never had any use for a car in Oslo and now London), and if I'd lived there I'd have gotten a license as quick as - I'm generally quite flexible about walking long distances just for the walk, and happy to take things easy and wait for a bus or a train , but even somewhere like the Bay Area with a population density well over the places I grew up had so horrible public transit coverage it'd drive me crazy.
I'm not trying to solve the public policy problems--just pointing out that cars have immense practical value and aren't just metal coffins.
When I went to Norway for vacation I was able to go to the wilderness on ferries like you suggest, which is great.
There's no rail (that I'm aware of) to make those trips convenient or cost effective either.
On top of all of that it would be cheaper to drive an electric vehicle than any of the other options.
Going on family vacation to Chicago we take Amtrak. Which is really nice/relaxing. But it's not the fastest and far from the cheapest way to travel for a family of four.
I'll be pretty pumped for the day the I-45 corridor to Houston gets a few DC quick-chargers and I can drive the Leaf to visit family in Galveston.
Sure, you say, that's because there's no direct route. True. San Antonio's better: 5 hours and $34. Still leaves once a day. At 7pm.
Exactly how long do you think most people's commutes are???
Density is how you remove reliance on the car.
> According to organization’s time use data, the average commuting time in the United States is about 28 minutes (similar to a separate measure from the United States Census Bureau). That is 10 minutes shorter than the average commuting time for all member countries, of 38 minutes, and longer than the time spent traveling to work in only three rich countries (Israel, Denmark and Sweden).
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/10/14/world-of-commut...