@Hypocrisy_Central It is true that Americans love their cars, and it is going to take a huge cultural shift for transportation to drastically change in a large way. Comparing us to some other countries is a little unfair, because we are a vast country with wider, more open spaces with longer travel time from one place to another. Public transit is not practical in those settings. In most of our larger cities we do have public transportation to some extent, NYC is the best example, few people own a car there. San Francisco is another, Chicago also decent system, I haven’t been to Boston, but figure it must be OK there, but other medium sized cities have a poor public system, or the city is very divided economically and the middle and upper class don’t use the systems. Some developers in suburbs are trying to build neighborhoods and buildings that are mixed use, and cut down the need for a car, relying on golf carts, bycicles, and walking (I personally really like this master planned type of community). Although, I do agree that even in suburbs that have conviences close buy many American still choose to drive.
It would take some sacrifice, but people could organize and drastically reduce their fuel consumption. People could carpool to the supermarkets and to work. Not let any high school kids drive to school, but take the bus. Everyone agree not to travel by car on just one holiday like Thanksgiving, and it would be huge. Similar to what happened in Montgomery when the black citizens refused to use the buses. It showed incredible fortitude and committment.
However, after saying all of this. It might be good for prices to go up, because that might just be the thing that forces the cultural shift. Not so much about having to forgo seeing family on Thanksgiving, but to stop buying big gas guzzlers, and for car manufacturers to produce cars with better MPG. It seems to be happening a little now.