This video explainer from Vox looks into why most Americans have to drive everywhere to get anything done. It's a grim history, but a grimmer future as environmental catastrophe threatens.
This sealed the country's fate as a car culture, and today we're seeing the results. In most cities, it's extremely difficult to get around without a car, in part due to public transit systems built to serve an outdated commute. And when our politics turn to infrastructure, the government often favors building new roads and highways instead of improving and expanding public transportation. The result is a system that forces more Americans to drive, at the expense of those who rely on public transit. It's also the biggest contributor to our country's carbon footprint. Fixing that over the long term will require a reimagining of American cities and towns. But there's also a way that, if we wanted to, we could improve American transit systems, and get more people riding them, in a matter of weeks.
