Transportation
America's Ongoing Love Affair With the Car
Despite modest improvements in dense city centers, the vast majority of us are still driving to work alone.
With all the consternation in some corners about the so-called “war on cars,” you’d think Americans were giving up their automobiles in droves in favor of mass transit, biking, walking, or telecommuting.
But the latest report on commuting habits from the U.S. Census Bureau reminds us that when it comes to getting to and from work, the United States remains overwhelmingly an auto-dependent nation. The report, by Brian McKenzie of the Census’s Journey to Work and Migration Statistics Branch, finds that 86 percent of U.S. workers get to work in a car. The study is based on data from the 2013 American Community Survey (ACS).