I agree that it's absurd that a lot of Americans have to rely on their cars, but I sympathize with the commenters here who don't have cars in places where they

I agree that it's absurd that a lot of Americans have to rely on their cars, but I sympathize with the commenters here who don't have cars in places where they would be really convenient. It would be good if the author of the article went more in-depth about the causes of car culture and potential policy solutions. The car is a status symbol of independence in American culture, but I don't think the prevalence of that culture can be separated from how our infrastructure is heavily biased towards utilizing public space for parking spaces, roads, etc. I personally dislike driving and would much rather walk or take a train to where I'm going, even if it took a bit longer. In my city, there is no public transit at all that would allow me to get to where my doctor is, and it would take almost 2 hours for me to bike there across very dangerous roads not designed for bikers. My city also banned ride sharing services for a time, so the only options would have been "bumming" a ride from someone or taking an expensive cab - both car-based modes of transit. Taking public transit to another place I could have biked from more easily would have taken just as long as biking the whole route. Towards the end of the route, I would have had to somehow bike on a highway with cards speeding along at 60+mph, too. Even in another city designed with bike lanes when I had very obvious flashing lights attached to my bike, I got hit by a driver who wasn't paying attention when he turned right onto the road in front of me. Drivers in my current city are much less aware of bikers than there, and I've seen Uber drivers in another city with a similar lack of public transit yelling and harassing bikers sharing the road quite unobtrusively. Another factor here is that the elderly get heat strokes during the summer when temperatures exceed 100 degrees. I'm not sure how well walking to their bus stop would work. There need to be better solutions here than the gas guzzling monstrosities that people drive everyday. I try to reduce my carbon footprint and gas bill by driving an efficient car. The infrastructure for electric cars, which would help the dependence on fossil fuels but not entirely solve deaths from vehicle accidents (though it might prevent some, because of large crumple zones), simply isn't there yet. Until better public transit gets more funding, the increasing availability of affordable electric cars may be a good stopgap solution, at least.