United States without a car
Photo: Felix Gottwald, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons
The United States is often called the land of the automobile. It has more than a quarter billion cars on the road (roughly 25% of all cars in the world), more than any other nation, as well as one of the highest number of cars per capita of any non-city-state country. Most Americans' primary form of identification is a driver's license. Consequently, car-dependent settlement patterns are more extreme and more the norm in the U.S. than anywhere else. Outside of certain cities, car ownership is widely assumed to be the default.
Still, many travelers want to get around without a car, whether for lack of a driver's license, to save money, or to minimize environmental footprint. Another reason is that city driving can be quite stressful and many people want to enjoy a relaxing holiday free from even the thought of their annoying daily commute.
UnderstandTaken in the mass, the automobile is a noxious mechanism whose destiny in workaday urban use is to frustrate man and make dead certain that he approaches his daily occupation unhappy and inefficient.
Get aroundOne popular alternative to car travel are the various forms of urban and intercity rail service.
Easy citiesThese cities are fairly easy to visit without using a car, though travel times may be longer for some destinations than in cities of comparable size in Europe, East Asia, Canada, etc.
Moderate cities
Hard citiesThe suburban cities/municipalities surrounding the "easy cities" listed above 10–60 miles (16–100 km) outside of their downtown cores can rival the "hard cities" as well.
Other popular destinationsMost World Heritage Sites in the USA are national parks or otherwise in rural areas, and only about half of them can be reached without driving.
Sources and licences
- Guide text adapted from the Wikivoyage article "United States without a car" by its contributors, available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Read on Wikivoyage · Contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Photo: Felix Gottwald, CC BY-SA 3.0 via Wikimedia Commons