Americans Don't Like Public Transportation

The Philadephia Inquirer reports:

"We Americans embraced the auto more rapidly than any other nation on Earth," said Bob Casey, curator of transportation at the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit, which is not affiliated with Ford Motor Co.

"The auto really resonates with the American sense of individualism. We pursue happiness and our own personal freedom with a vengeance."

These days, there are about as many cars in the United States as there are people - somewhere north of 290 million - according to Art Spinella, president of CNW Marketing Research, which tracks consumer spending patterns. That's twice the number of cars that were on the road just 20 years ago, he said.

Since 1986, statistics show, traffic volume has risen 38 percent on the New Jersey Turnpike, said to be the busiest highway in the United States.

And volume has grown 63 percent on Pennsylvania highways, according to Rich Kirkpatrick, spokesman for the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation.

"Going where you want, when you want, is a treasured aspect of American life," Kirkpatrick said. "And there is no evidence of a drop-off in traffic as fuel prices rise."

You might say the way people get around in New York City isn't the trend in America.