In most cities in America, with a few notable exceptions, such as New York City and Washington, DC, the vast majority of people commuting to work, drive their own car, and drive that car, by themselves. So then, despite the fact that most every vehicle on the road can easily handle four people in it, we see time and time again, just one person in that vehicle, which is the driver, and no more. This does seem like not only an environmental waste, because of all the fuel that is being utilized for just one person, but also the incumbent pollution generated from the excess amount of vehicles on the road.
One would think, that America, would want to look at its commuting habits and see what could or could not be done to reduce the amount of solo drivers upon the road, but this doesn’t seem to be any real priority for America, to its lasting disgrace. One possible solution is for there to be more carpooling, but carpooling doesn’t seem to be something that has ever really caught on in America, though, with proper incentives and encouragement, perhaps this could change for the better. Another way to reduce not only solo drivers but the driving of vehicles itself would be to have a more robust form of public transportation, which America duly suffers the lack of, not only because so many cities are so spread out, but because our infrastructure for public transportation, in most of our cities, does not hold a candle to European cities, and does not appear to be something that the powers that be, would like to concentrate upon. Another avenue to pursue would be for this government to place pressure upon corporations, that they must put together action plans that would meet some minimum goals of people commuting to work that would increase carpooling, with incentives put in place to encourage such, and penalties to discourage their lack of follow-through upon this action.
Of course, another way to deal with how many solo drivers that there are, would be to manufacture cars that are lighter and smaller and therefore more efficient in their energy usage, but that doesn’t seem to be in America’s DNA, so that would appear to be a non-starter. Additionally, we could encourage companies to see that more of their employees be permitted to work from home, and should this be accomplished, this would be a welcomed win-win scenario and thereby should be actively encouraged and incentivized.
The bottom line is that it just seems unfathomable that so many people are far too content to drive their own automobile, and are blithely unconcerned about their individual contribution to pollution or the usage of a form of energy that is non-renewable, but that is indeed the case. So then, at this point, it seems that the only way to reduce solo driving in America would be for the government to come up with a nationwide plan to address such, which thereupon would take an active role in expending the necessary billions of dollars now, in order to reap the benefits, later. For as it stands, to believe that society’s laissez-faire attitude will change much of anything when it comes to solo driving, is complete ignorance