This Policy Study examines the sustainability of cars and trucks in the first decades of the twenty-first century. The authors find that private ownership of cars and trucks produces benefits that far exceed their costs to society, and that concern over future shortages of oil, loss of farmland, air quality, and global warming do not justify restrictions on our freedom to travel. Cars and trucks produce tremendous benefits to individuals and to society. The benefits of private ownership of cars and trucks are often overlooked because they are woven into the warp and woof of our daily lives. Short trips taken in private cars cost less than traveling by trains or buses when the value of travelers' time is taken into account.
Cars expand our choice of where to live and work by making commuting faster and less expensive.
The car was largely responsible for the rise in home ownership from 44 percent to 66 percent in the last 50 years. Cars, trucks, and buses expand educational and shopping opportunities by putting a larger number of schools, shops, and markets within a convenient distance of our homes, thereby expanding our choices and inspiring innovation and efficiency among competing schools and stores. Automobility produces an important political benefit by empowering the individual against governments and others who would seek to limit his or her civil and economic freedoms. The price of automobility is very modest compared to its benefits. Thankfully, traffic fatalities have been falling, both in absolute numbers and even more dramatically per mile traveled.