Written by: Charlotte Dujardin
Edited by: Sonja Colford
Have you ever tried to get from one side of the island of Montréal to the other? If you have, you probably know that it takes about three hours, and Montréal is known to be one of the most well-connected cities in North America, with dedicated bus lanes, and an efficient metro system. When thinking of North American means of transportation, it is not public transit that comes to mind, as the American system is widely known for its lack of efficiency and connectivity. Rather, the first thing most think of are cars. Not only cars, but also big pickup trucks designed for long drives on the highway facing the most extreme conditions, such as snowstorms or deserts. However, 82.2% of the population of North America is located in urban areas (Worldometer, 2024), and therefore should not require such large-scale modes of transport. Additionally, this high urban population percentage could benefit from the connectivity public transit provides. What led to such a distaste for public transportation in North America? Why is the culture of transportation so different from other parts of the world?
The lack of public transportation infrastructure as well as limited use of public transit in North America is flagrant, and this is made even more explicit when compared to other continents. Indeed, 92% of the North American population gets around by car and only 5% by public transit (Rao, 2024). Europe is often contrasted against North America when discussing modes of transportation, but the difference does not only lie between North America and Europe, as the global average for public transit use is 26% (Rao, 2024). For example, 40% percent of the Eastern European population and 43% of the Southeast Asian population travels by public transit, which demonstrates how a culture of public transportation can emerge in different parts of the world, regardless of geography or development (Rao, 2024).
The relationship that exists between North Americans and car use is associated with American individualism and liberal culture. Indeed, in the 1950s, the “religion of the motorcar” emerged in the United States (Mumford, 1970). This was linked to car owners feeling a sense of superiority; because cars are private, owning a car meant being able to go about one’s daily commute without having to deal with finding a space on the bus, sitting down next to a stranger, and overall being in a public space. Cars are the epitome of North American individualism, as they permit minimal contact with the outside world. At the time, cars were also rare, and “as long as cars were few in number, he who had one was king” (Mumford, 1970). In this way, the 1950s established a narrative that led to the idealization of cars as the best mode of transportation, and it became increasingly popular as the years passed.
The advent of the motorcar led to urban sprawl — the spreading of urban development to surrounding countryside areas — and with it, destroyed the possibility of effective public transit to prevail. As cars gained popularity, city planners started shaping cities around car transportation, which was made possible with the dawn of highways. The highway made its debut into the American way of life, invading cities with roads of two or more lanes and destroying the urban landscape. Highways allowed people to reach the city center directly and rapidly, and thus they settled in suburbs, as a region is “most sprawling if its traditional central city is in decline and if nearly all of its residents commute by automobile” (Lewyn, 2012). Today, 55% of the North American population lives in suburbia (Parker, et al., 2018), and, as they are “less compact than cities” (Lewyn, 2012), it means that suburbanites are not within a walkable distance of a public transit stop. Overall, the lack of proximity of suburbanites to public transit stops means that they are not likely to use this mode of transportation, and would rather use their car, leading to the demise of public transit in North America.
In conclusion, North Americans overwhelmingly live in suburbs that are poorly connected by public transportation and value their personal space due to regional tenets of individualism and liberalism. This combination between the North American mindset and the shape that the public transit system took due to urban sprawl means that North Americans would rather commute for two hours in a car rather than take a bus. These factors explain the incompatibility of the North American lifestyle with public transit, a system which works best in densely populated cities where people do not mind sitting next to strangers.
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References:
Lewyn, M. (2012). Sprawl in Canada and the United States. The Urban Lawyer, 44(1), 85–133. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41638069
Mumford, L. (1970). The Highway and the City: Essays. Harcourt, Brace & World.
Parker, K., Horowitz, J. M., Brown, A., Fry, R., Cohn, D., & Igielnik, R. (2018). 1. Demographic and economic trends in urban, suburban and rural communities. Pew Research Center. https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2018/05/22/demographic-and-economic-trends-in-urban-suburban-and-rural-communities/#:~:text=About%20half%20of%20Americans%20(55,of%20Americans%20live%20in%20them.
Rao, P. (2024). How people get around in America, Europe, and Asia. Visual Capitalist. https://www.visualcapitalist.com/how-people-get-around-america-europe-asia/#google_vignette
Worldometer. (2024). https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/northern-america-population/#:~:text=82.2%20%25%20of%20the%20population%20is,Northern%20America%20is%2038.5years
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