{"id":16174,"date":"2014-01-28T15:47:25","date_gmt":"2014-01-28T21:47:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=16174"},"modified":"2014-07-06T11:23:53","modified_gmt":"2014-07-06T17:23:53","slug":"car-ownership-american-rite-of-passage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/car-ownership-american-rite-of-passage\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Car Ownership No Longer an American Rite of Passage?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember the first car you owned? If you’re a Gen X-er or older, there’s little doubt that you do: it was a big deal. As we’ve noted before, though, there’s evidence that young Americans aren’t quite as enamored with car ownership<\/a>: where we saw freedom and the open road, they see burdens of gas, insurance, maintenance, etc. If you’re in the city, why not buy a transit pass?<\/p>\n

But that’s not the case in the developing world, right? That’s one of the big pieces of news from this Gas 2.0 piece: even countries like China and Brazil may be hitting something like “peak car,” as governments recognize the costs created by individual car ownership.<\/p>\n

While cars aren’t going away tomorrow, this long-term trend has to worry the business and political classes who’ve put so much stock in the idea that the auto industry = manufacturing in the US. Similarly, cities and metropolitan regions that have developed on car-dependent patterns may find their tax bases drying up. The individually-owned car is central to much of American culture – what adjustments will less car ownership require of us (even as we breathe a bit easier)?<\/p>\n

\n