We really are at peak car

From Treehugger, Dec. 10, 2013
By Lloyd Alter

Excerpts from the article:

The US Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) provides even more proof that Americans have fallen out of love with their cars. They summarize it in their new study, Transportation in Transition:

From 2006 to 2011, the average number of miles driven per resident fell in almost three-quarters of America’s largest urbanized areas for which up-to-date and accurate data are available. Most urbanized areas have also seen increases in public transit use and bicycle commuting and decreases in the share of households owning a car. 
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Photo Source: Phil Hossack, Winnipeg Free Press

Kaid Benfied at NRDC Switchboard concludes that we have to reallocate resources to reflect the trends.

Especially because the new report is consistent with a multitude of information showing changes in living patterns and lifestyle preferences, we should shift more public resources into transit, to keep up with and strengthen the trends toward more sustainable modes of transportation.... We need to evolve our communities so that they become more suited to alternative modes, including walking and bicycling as well as transit, so that more [people] have more choices. And, where options do exist, we need to support and maintain them better in order to reduce carbon emissions, other forms of pollution, and automobile-dependent land uses.

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The PIRG study concludes with much the same thing, suggesting that our governments should:

• Revisit transportation plans
• Reallocate resources
• Remove barriers to non-driving transportation options.

You can read the entire article, including interesting data supporting the report, by clicking here.

- submitted by Gareth