This, in turn, creates more wealth for everyone. Politicians in Canada are betting their political bucks that kowtowing to auto industry interests will pay off in terms of jobs and a higher standard of living. During the City of Vancouver's 1996 Transportation Plan symposia, auto-industry lobbyists told us in no uncertain terms that any efforts to reduce car use would negatively impact the local economy. Dealerships, gas stations and collision repair shops, they told us, would all suffer. Jobs would be lost.
Cars are a necessary evil.
That more cars equals more wealth is really more myth than reality. In fact, new research shows that high and increasing levels of car dependence actually harm an economy. In other words, the more we drive more, the poorer we get. In the United States, those regions most dependent on cars have the lowest levels of GRP per capita. In Toronto, Canada's least auto-oriented urban region, people use cars half as much as they do in average U.S. city.