Quote Originally Posted by cfds View Post
And redrobes has probably hit the key issue: cars are one of the most important symbols of status and as long that doesn't change it will be difficult to get away from oil.
For me (and I suspect a lot of other Americans), it's not even about status. It's about being able to get from Point A to Point B in a timely manner. I live in the San Francisco Bay area, which has one of the best public transit systems in the US, but even so it's still a nightmare if need to get from, say, my home in San Mateo to a business appointment in Oakland. I'd have to get on a bus to the BART station (about 25 minutes), then take BART across the Bay to Oakland (another 20 minutes or so), then get on another bus (or two or three, with transfers) - another 30 minutes easily. So anywhere from an hour and a half up to possibly two or two and a half hours to travel twenty miles.

Or I could just hop in my car, drive across the bridge, and be at my appointment in half an hour to forty-five minutes, even in rush hour traffic.

I'd gladly get rid of my car in a heartbeat if there was fast, convenient, and inexpensive nation-wide public transit. Speaking of cost, that little ride I just described above? That'd cost about $16 for a round-trip, compared to burning about 2 gallons of gas = $6 (figure 20 miles to a gallon, so two gallons).