Before their own cultural patterns were disrupted, the Australian Aborigines spent perhaps three hours a day providing their basic needs. Without any firm figures, I would guess the average North American, because of the car, spends quite a bit more. If so, then the sense of freedom associated with the car may be a compensating daydream. In lives that are fully regimented by work and other social agencies, there s less time these days to get away - and fewer places to go when the chance arises, since many commuters live in areas that are built to discourage even a simple stroll. The freedom in a car is relative to the entrapment that many feel most everywhere else.
Daily life yields much evidence that cars are indeed private fantasy chambers.
A sideward glance at any stoplight is apt to fall on a solitary driver lost in mumbling bemusement - or in mute trance. I have resolved to change my life many times in a car. The oil crisis in the 1970s flushed out a hidden subculture of people who had been using auto therapy to maintain their mental health. Several psychologists reported that case numbers were growing at the time in step with rising gasoline prices. People who could no longer afford to bliss themselves with the late-night mantra of road hum were turning, reluctantly, to official healers.