Development patterns and land-use have also followed the dictates of the car. Densities of older communities across the nation have fallen, sometimes quite drastically, since World War II, while at the same time the sheer breadth of most metropoles has expanded dramatically. To an extraordinary degree, therefore, the nature, character and operation of American society today stems from ready access to the personal car. In a series of interviews that appeared in magazines and on national television, neo-traditional town planning advocate Andres Duany used suburban Orlando FL to point out that the average American housewife makes approximately 14 auto trips per day, and that while these trips tended to be short in length and extremely repetitive, they were almost mandatory, given the nature of her existence. Children had to be taken to lessons, recreational activities, to see friends.
Separate trips needed to be made to buy groceries, pick up laundry, etc.
The scenario that Duany painted was one in which a member of the privileged upper middle class elite was virtually a prisoner of her transportation system. Often, the middle-class suburban mother's primary job today is serving as a chauffeur. This assessment of housewives as slaves to their cars presents a strong sociological indictment of the auto-based transportation system. Additional criticism comes in the name of energy-efficiency and environmentalism. If one accepts that optimizing energy use and minimizing environmental impact are critical aspects of sustainable design, an initial definition of a sustainable transportation system might be 'one that facilitates the greatest amount of human and social interaction using the least amount of non-renewable energy and creating the least amount of environmental damage.