It's 7:15 a.m., and the Andrews household is running late. While Tracy heads off for wok in a neighboring town, her husband Jack gets the kids into the car and drops them at school before continuing to his job accross town. At 4:30, Tracy leaves work to take her son to piano lessons and pick up some groceries. Later that evening, Jack meets Tracy at their daughter's basketball game, and the family stops for ice cream after the game. By the end of the day, Tracy and jack have logged a total of 100 miles on their two cars.
In 1998, the Andrews' daily routing is typical; fifty years ago, it would have been unthinkable. For most Americans, driving a car many miles a day for routine errands is commonplace.
But as more people drive more miles, they place serious stresses on human and environmental health. In 1960, for instance, about 390,000 people lived in Vermont, and drivers logged about 1.6 billions miles in the state. By 1995, those numbers had jumped to 580,000 Vermonters and 602 billion miles traveled. (See Chart.) These dramatic increases have degraded our air quality, compromised human and environmental health, diminished the world oil supply, siphoned money out of the state economy, increased road construction and maintenance costs, and killed and injured more people in car crashes. 
Why Do We Drive So Much?|
Compromised Air Quality|
Importing a Non-Renewable Fuel and Exporting Dollars|
Increasing Road Constuction and Maintenance Costs and Car Accidents|
What We Can Do
Why Do We Drive So Much?
Vermont has seen a great deal of rural, large-lot residential development away from town centers in recent years. Such development requires more driving -- for commuting to work, shopping and family business, and social and recreational purposes. Commuting currently accounts for about one-third of all vehicle miles traveled in Vermont and nationwide. The average travel time to work in Vermont in 1990 was 18 minutes, translating into about 19 eight-hour work days per year. Nationwide, person-miles traveled for shopping and family buisiness increased by 50% between 1983 and 1990, and such trips currently account for another one-third of vehicle miles traveled.
In addition, both truck traffic and tourist traffic contribute substantially to statewide vehicle miles traveled. Medium and heavy trucks accounted for 9.5% of all vehicle miles traveled on interstates and arterial roads in Vermont in 1996, up from 7.1% in 1993.
Artificially low oil prices have made it possible for everyone to continue to drive more. Many of the costs of driving are not included in the price we pay for gasoline, including costs for the health impacts of air pollution, future global climate change, car crashes, and protecting foreign oil interests. Even the cost of building and maintaining our roads in Vermont is not completely paid for through gasoline prices and user fees (such as registration fees). An average of 23% of Vermont's highway expenditures came from property taxes between 1986 and 1995. Because markets fail to include all costs in the price of gasoline, fuel prices are artificially low and consumers choose to drive more, use public transportation less, and buy cars that aren't fuel efficient.
Americans' habit of driving inefficient vehicles has compounded the negative impacts of driving more miles. The federal automobile fuel efficiency standards have not changed since 1985.1 In addition, sales of the most inefficient passenger vehicles -- pickups, vans, and sport utility vehicles -- have boomed in the past decade. In Vermont, 36% of all moter vehicles registered in 1996 were pickups, vans and sport utility vehicles.
1 Except for a temporary relaxation. Compromised Air Quality
Driving a car or truck is the most polluting and energy consumptive activity most Vermonters undertake. The average car emits five to six tons of carbon dioxide2 and half a ton of other air pollutants per year. As drivers logged 6.2 billion miles in Vermont in 1995, they created:
These air pollutants cause numerous human health problems, including respiratory disease, eye ailments, heart stress, nervous system problems, cancer, and increased susceptibility of disease for infants and elderly persons. In addition, acid rain and smog emissions damage crops, acidify lakes and streams, contribute to forest decline, degrade visibility, contaminate water, stress wildlife, and damage buildings. Altogether, air pollution costs from transportation in Vermont have been estimated at $471 million for just one year, 1995.
2 Carbon Dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas responsible for future climate change. Importing a Non-Renewable Fuel and Exporting Dollars
As our driving increases, we continue to diminish the world oil supply, a non-renewable resource. The world ultimate resources of oil,3 if used at the current predicted growth rate, will last 40 years. As oil becomes more expensive, future generations could face massive costs to reconstruct a society and economy that have been fueled for decades by cheap oil.
Driving also pumps money out of Vermont's economy and makes us dependent on a politically unstable part of the world, the Middle East. in 1996, the U.S. imprted 46.2% of the petroleum required for transportation and other uses. Vermonters spent about $448 million in 1995 on transportation energy, virtually all of which left the state economy.
3 "World ultimate recources" of oil are the technically recoverable oil resources assuming existing technology, including reserves already used, proven reserves, future additions to reserves in existing fields, and estimated undiscovered resources. Increasing Road Construction and Maintenance Costs and Crashes
Costs for roadway construction and maintenance also have grown in recent years. While Vermont's roadway expenditures fell during the 1970's, they almost doubled between 1980 and 1992, a time when vehicle miles were increasing rapidly. In 1995, roadway construction and maintenance costs for the state were at $203 million.
The costs of transportation are also measured in human lives. There were 88 deaths and 3,568 injuries resulting from vehicle crashes in Vermont in 1996, and costs for crashes were estimated at $239.5 million in 1993. Transportation safety is a much greater problem than crime in Vermont, when measured in terms of needless deaths and injuries.
What We Can Do
As population increases in Vermont, we must decrease the impact of each person on the envionment just to maintain current levels of impact. For example, in order to stabilize statewide carbon dioxide emissions from transportation at their 1990 level through 2020 (and assuming population grows as predicted by state demographers):
In order to decrease each person's impact from driving, individuals can choose to live closer to their places of work, purchase efficient vehicles, carpool, telecommute, use public transportation, walk and bike to destinations, and purchase locally produced goods. Towns and cities can insist on higher-density land use patterns that encourage people to make those choices. State and federal government officials can include the full costs of driving in the price of gasoline, increase federal auto fuel efficiency standards, adopt low-emitting vehicle standards, adopt vehicle emissions check programs, create incentives to move truck traffic to rail, and adopt lower interstate speed limits.4 Business owners can sell locally produced goods, support rail delivery of merchandise, and stockpile merchandise instead of relying on frequent or "just-in-time" deliveries.
The serious human and environmental health consequences of driving demand that we begin to decrease the impacts each person contributes. When we stop making that 20-mile commute, stop getting in the car for every errand, and stop expecting gasoline to remain cheap, we will be on the path toward a more sustainable future for ourselves and our grandchildren.
4 Truck traffic is less efficient than rail traffic, requiring about four times more energy to move the same amount of goods. At 65mph, energy consumption in cars and trucks is 15%-22% greater than at 55 mph, and traffic fatalities are substantially higher.
