Drive Less and Save
March 18, 2022
With U.S. gas prices at a record high and climbing (a small price to pay considering what our Ukrainian friends are experiencing), much of the chatter I’m hearing and reading are frankly missing the mark. All that I’m hearing is "buy, consume, buy." Not only is the share of U.S. consumer spending on gasoline and energy still at very low rates compared to the last 60 years, but it's declined significantly over time and is pretty minuscule in the grand scheme, yet there is so much attention on it. Instead of buying more and consuming the same amount, or more, how about the message being "reduce, reuse, recycle?"
“Find a cheaper gas station”, “Go out and buy an electric car.” While I fully support the transition to electric vehicles and moving our economy away from fossil fuels, car dependence is the real issue.
We’ve overly subsidized driving a private automobile for decades and maybe now we’re starting to catch a glimpse of the real cost - our dependence on it, not to mention global supply chain constraints, rising road and bridge maintenance costs, a rise in deadly crashes, and its harmful impact on climate change and the air we breathe.
Not promoting the number of ways that people can reduce their cost burden is a missed opportunity. There has been little mention of actions we can take to save - save money, save our finite resources, and how about our well-being? Owning a car is expensive, yet many people have few other options because of our existing transportation system and land use patterns. Although they’re becoming more available with more affordable options, buying an electric vehicle is still out of reach for many people.
Americans are willing to try alternatives, but sometimes they need a nudge, an incentive, and maybe a sense of “everyone else is doing it.” Let's make it trendy to drive less.
Not only will driving less have positive, sustainability impacts, but may keep fuel costs more affordable for people that really need to drive and have no other options.
Here’s a few ways we can all drive less. Which ones will you do?
Ride a personal bike, e-bike, or e-scooter
Walk
Take public transit: train or bus
Bike or scooter share
Shop locally by bike or walking distance
Move closer to work or work closer to home
Work from home more often
Federal, state, and local governments should be promoting this as common sense, and offering incentives to reduce our addiction to fossil fuels, especially as it makes macro and micro-economic sense. The only way we’re going to solve the compounding, global issues, interconnected with our car addicted culture is everyone taking small actions like this. Maybe now is finally the time? With the rise of new technologies, smaller vehicle form factors, greater awareness and desire to have a future that is less car addicted, and as we are experiencing now, the geopolitical risks of relying on foreign fossil fuel energy from autocrats (not just Russia), maybe this is the impetus? Let's hope.
I would be remiss not to mention this recent piece from Streetsblog that inspired my writing here and expands on my sentiments: https://usa.streetsblog.org/2022/03/09/advocates-to-biden-car-dependence-not-gas-prices-is-americas-real-crisis/
#drivelessandsave
