Cars dominate the United States for a variety of reasons.
For one, decades of misguided planning decisions have created environments where people are completely dependent on cars.
But logistics might not be the only reason why people drive. People might prefer cars even when it’s cheaper and faster to take mass transit, according to certain studies.
A 2014 study from Australia revealed that saving time and money are not always the main motivators for car use: it’s that cars are often perceived to be more efficient, even when they aren’t. Researcher Jennifer Kent performed a series of in-depth interviews of Sydney commuters who chose to drive even when they had access to faster public transportation. Kent writes:
explanations are based around notions of flexibility, freedom, and reliability, as well as the interminable pull of the sensory experience provided by the cocoon of the car … Automobility here is entirely entrenched, not only in transport practices, but what it means to participate in modern life.
Kent wasn’t the only researcher to find that people irrationally prefer driving: a 2013 study from Italy found similar results. Italian researchers gave participants a series of travel scenarios where they have to choose which mode to use for their journey. In one scenario, metro (urban subway or commuter rail) costs are fixed, but car costs are variable and dependent on unknown factors such as traffic congestion. Participants overwhelmingly favored driving.
Why? The researchers suggested that the car’s cultural dominance played a role, as well as “the fact that car costs are often underestimated because they are partially paid delayed over time.” This means that because people don’t pay to drive every time they get behind the wheel, but instead pay through car payments, insurance, maintenance, and gas, these “hidden costs” tend to be underestimated.
In addition to culture, comfort might also be a factor. A 2017 study of transportation trends from the company Conduent found that more than half of Americans who drive in cities do so because of comfort.
However, choosing comfort isn’t always considered irrational. “‘Comfort’ is a part of rational decision making,” notes Joe Averkamp, a Conduent technology expert. “It isn’t as firm an attribute as price, travel time, or availability, but it is a big part of choosing a transport mode.”
Conduent found that 61 percent of drivers say that traffic causes them to lose quality time with family and friends, and 51 percent are late to work. Yet people still drive.
Averkamp thinks that old habits play a role. “When we take a vacation, we investigate, we analyze, we compare. But when we’re doing our daily commute, we don’t analyze – we just fall back into habit.”
What does this mean for city leaders trying to curtail car use? In addition to continuing to make public transportation the rational choice for more people, perhaps transit officials should also make transit cool.
That’s what transit planner Darrin Nordahl thinks. “If people behaved entirely rationally, we would have foregone our cars long ago,” he writes in his book Making Transit Fun! “Joy helps transit compete against the allure of the automobile. And joy might be the quickest way to erase the persistent stigma of getting around without a car.”
What does this joy look like? Fun transit ad campaigns and cool facilities, like these swing sets at London bus stops.
But does joy seem irrational to you? So is driving a car.
Photo of The Incredibles by Disney.