Important enough for many of us to spend over an hour a day doing it, important enough for many of us to spend thousands of dollars annually on it, important enough that our domiciles and cities are designed to accommodate it. There is an interesting continuum in transportation with regard to how much technology is put into the vehicle versus technology in the medium the vehicle travels upon - the transportation infrastructure. If everyone rode dirt bikes, for example, there would not be much need for roads, since the vehicle is capable of traveling over a wide variety of terrain. Our current infrastructure will severely constrain the types of changes we can consider. We'll classify trips under ten miles in length as local.
Local transport needs to be on-demand, fast, and instantaneous.
We'll assign trips of 10-200 miles as being regional in nature. For many of us, this describes a commute trip. Note that as we move up the scale, the trips become more constrained, scheduled, and infrequent. I first have to get to the airport, and then flights only leave at certain times, and it's possible I need to plan days or weeks in advance to get a seat on a flight. Other people accommodate regional transportation needs with cars, treating them like local transport.