American Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning

Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.

Love affair with cars starts to skid By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 1, 3:22 PM ET



WASHINGTON - Americans love their automobiles, but not as much as they
used to.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nearly seven in 10 drivers enjoy getting behind the wheel, while the
rest think it's a chore. In 1991, nearly eight in 10 said they liked
driving.

The biggest reasons for dreading the road: traffic and the behavior of
other drivers. Only 3 percent point to high gas prices.

"Other drivers get on my nerves," said Steve Heavisides, a 45-year-old
teacher from Vernon, Conn., who had just returned home from a short
drive. "There was a women who could have gone right on red and she was
just sitting there talking on her cell phone. People don't pay
attention and that gets on your nerves."

About one in four drivers thinks of his or her car as "something
special" instead of just a "means of transportation," according to a
poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. Nearly one in three
thinks it has "a personality of its own."

Americans have been loving their cars for about a century, buying
increasingly bigger, faster and more expensive cars while the rest of
the world moves toward economy and efficiency. But the new poll
suggests that driving is becoming more of a burden for many.

The souring attitudes evolved as many Americans moved farther from
central cities, generating longer commutes and more congestion. By
2001, the U.S. had more personal vehicles (204 million) than licensed
drivers (191 million).

Urban drivers endured an average of 47 hours of rush hour traffic
delays in 2003, a threefold increase from two decades earlier. The
worst problems were in Los Angeles, where the average driver suffered
almost 100 hours of traffic delays. That's about four full days of
waiting for the car in front of you to move.

"I sit there in traffic when it should take half an hour, now it's
taking an hour and 15 minutes," said Stacy Baglio, 36, who drives 28
miles to her sales job in northern New Jersey. "People are weaving in
and out of traffic. There is no common courtesy whatsoever."

Pew conducted the survey of 1,048 drivers from June 20 to July 16. It
has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The results were compared with a Gallup poll done in 1991.

The new poll's results were consistent among drivers of cars, pickups
and SUVs. There were few regional differences among drivers, although
northeasterners were more likely than drivers in the rest of the
country to have "shouted, cursed or made gestures to other drivers" in
the past year.

The key to rediscovering automotive bliss: Zen out. Too many people
think of driving as competition, says Leon James, co-author of the
book, "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving." Happy drivers think of
traffic simply as part of the process of getting from one place to
another, kind of like the process of taking a shower to get clean, he
said.

"Americans are nice people," said James, a psychology professor at the
University of Hawaii. "But there are certain areas that have to do with
games and competition, where we become less nice to each other."

Jennifer Geisinger seems to have it figured out. The 31-year-old
Realtor from suburban Minneapolis said she loves to drive her 1999
Honda CRV.

"It's something about being in control and getting out on the road,"
Geisinger said. "I don't have a sports car and I don't speed. But I
love my car."

Geisinger also has something in common with 68 percent of all drivers:
"Oh I sing, of course," she said, adding that her stereo plays country,
opera and Broadway show tunes.

___

On The Net:

The Pew Research Center, Americans and Their cars: Is the Romance on
the Skids?

http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID16

"Brian Griffin" wrote in message
oups.com...
Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.


Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case. KM
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On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:01:52 GMT, "Alohacyberian"
wrote:

"Brian Griffin" wrote in message
roups.com...
Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.


Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case. KM

Note: " American Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning" is not the
same as "World's Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning".

************* DAVE HATUNEN ) *************
* Tucson Arizona, out where the cacti grow *
* My typos & mispellings are intentional copyright traps *

"Hatunen" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:01:52 GMT, "Alohacyberian"
wrote:

"Brian Griffin" wrote in message
groups.com...
Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.


Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse
seems
to be the case. KM

Note: " American Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning" is not the
same as "World's Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning".

There is no waning of cars in America or the World. Transit use is
typically on the decline world wide as income goes up and people abandon
transit for cars. China and India for example are having a rapid increase
of car ownership as incomes have increased at least for part of the society.

There is no known mechanism that will decrease car use in the future or
increase transit use in the future.

All the article said is there is frustration among drivers with nothing said
about the frustrations of transit use.

The original poster made the ridiculous assumption that because their is
frustration then people will jump to transit. An illogical conclusion.
That is along the same lines of "since we don't have perfect knowledge of
evolution we must teach intelligent design" which is of course absurd.

On 8/2/2006 8:51 AM Brian Griffin wrote:
Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.

Love affair with cars starts to skid By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER,
Associated Press Writer
Tue Aug 1, 3:22 PM ET



WASHINGTON - Americans love their automobiles, but not as much as they
used to.

ADVERTISEMENT

Nearly seven in 10 drivers enjoy getting behind the wheel, while the
rest think it's a chore. In 1991, nearly eight in 10 said they liked
driving.

The biggest reasons for dreading the road: traffic and the behavior of
other drivers. Only 3 percent point to high gas prices.

"Other drivers get on my nerves," said Steve Heavisides, a 45-year-old
teacher from Vernon, Conn., who had just returned home from a short
drive. "There was a women who could have gone right on red and she was
just sitting there talking on her cell phone. People don't pay
attention and that gets on your nerves."

About one in four drivers thinks of his or her car as "something
special" instead of just a "means of transportation," according to a
poll released Tuesday by the Pew Research Center. Nearly one in three
thinks it has "a personality of its own."

Americans have been loving their cars for about a century, buying
increasingly bigger, faster and more expensive cars while the rest of
the world moves toward economy and efficiency. But the new poll
suggests that driving is becoming more of a burden for many.

The souring attitudes evolved as many Americans moved farther from
central cities, generating longer commutes and more congestion. By
2001, the U.S. had more personal vehicles (204 million) than licensed
drivers (191 million).

Urban drivers endured an average of 47 hours of rush hour traffic
delays in 2003, a threefold increase from two decades earlier. The
worst problems were in Los Angeles, where the average driver suffered
almost 100 hours of traffic delays. That's about four full days of
waiting for the car in front of you to move.

"I sit there in traffic when it should take half an hour, now it's
taking an hour and 15 minutes," said Stacy Baglio, 36, who drives 28
miles to her sales job in northern New Jersey. "People are weaving in
and out of traffic. There is no common courtesy whatsoever."

Pew conducted the survey of 1,048 drivers from June 20 to July 16. It
has a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The results were compared with a Gallup poll done in 1991.

The new poll's results were consistent among drivers of cars, pickups
and SUVs. There were few regional differences among drivers, although
northeasterners were more likely than drivers in the rest of the
country to have "shouted, cursed or made gestures to other drivers" in
the past year.

The key to rediscovering automotive bliss: Zen out. Too many people
think of driving as competition, says Leon James, co-author of the
book, "Road Rage and Aggressive Driving." Happy drivers think of
traffic simply as part of the process of getting from one place to
another, kind of like the process of taking a shower to get clean, he
said.

"Americans are nice people," said James, a psychology professor at the
University of Hawaii. "But there are certain areas that have to do with
games and competition, where we become less nice to each other."

Jennifer Geisinger seems to have it figured out. The 31-year-old
Realtor from suburban Minneapolis said she loves to drive her 1999
Honda CRV.

"It's something about being in control and getting out on the road,"
Geisinger said. "I don't have a sports car and I don't speed. But I
love my car."

Geisinger also has something in common with 68 percent of all drivers:
"Oh I sing, of course," she said, adding that her stereo plays country,
opera and Broadway show tunes.

___

On The Net:

The Pew Research Center, Americans and Their cars: Is the Romance on
the Skids?

http://pewresearch.org/social/pack.php?PackID16


Ok Here we go again.

--
________
To email me, Edit "blog" from my email address.
Brian M. Kochera
"Some mistakes are too much fun to only make once!"
View My Web Page: http://home.earthlink.net/~brian1951

On 2006-08-03 01:18:46 -0400, Hatunen said:

Note: " American Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning" is not the
same as "World's Love Affair With Cars Seen Waning".

Nor is it the same as "Starting in 2007, all known large cities,
starting with Los Angeles, Phoenix and Chicago, are going car-free."
Thank goodness!

Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.


Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case.

"There's a sucker born every minute." China and India have only begun
their autoholic binge and it will take some time for them to recover.

richard schumacher spake thus:

Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.

Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case.

"There's a sucker born every minute." China and India have only begun
their autoholic binge and it will take some time for them to recover.

Yes; I was going to say, remember the Peking^H^H^H^H^H^Beijing of
yesteryear? You know, the one where, even if those teeming millions were
in thrall to a cruel system, they got around in an
environmentally-friendly way, on millions of bicycles? Well, them thar
days are over.


--
I think someone should unplug the entire Internet and let us start
all over again. This time, make sure that Sergey Brin, Larry Page,
Jimmy Wales, and any admins from Wikipedia are not allowed to play,
by order of the U.N. Security Council or whatever.

- Daniel Brandt, on Wikipedia Review (http://wikipediareview.com)

richard schumacher wrote:
Looks like our love affair with the automobile is slowly coming to
an end. I think mass transit, walking, and biking are going to take
over most of our transportation needs.


Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case.

"There's a sucker born every minute." China and India have only begun
their autoholic binge and it will take some time for them to recover.

See? I was right and so was the article.

On Thu, 03 Aug 2006 03:01:52 GMT, "Alohacyberian"
wrote:

Uh-huh. Since auto sales increase worldwide every year, the converse seems
to be the case. KM


Hey, KM, learn what "converse" means.





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