The One-Car Policy

The radicalism of incrementalism

I don’t believe in central planning, with regard to family size, consumer-product ownership, or anything else. So my headline is a bit cheeky. But I have a point: it would actually be radical, in the American context, for it to be possible—not mandated, but possible—for the average family to get by just fine with only one car.

Some form of “car-free” or “car-lite” life is possible for many if not most people for some point in their lives. Kids who go away to college experience it. If someone lives very close to a transit stop that roughly serves their place of work, or if one or both spouses work remotely, you can almost certainly get by with one car (though you very likely still have two).

And, of course, lots of people get by this way by necessity—because they can’t afford more than one car, and maybe not a reliable car, either. This is just one way in which the near-necessity of car ownership imposed by the American built environment is a tax on people and families.

But as a general matter, for most people with the means to own or lease them, two cars per family is the minimum to be able to exercise mobility at a moment’s notice, without planning ahead or negotiating who needs the car when. In America, two cars as a general matter is normal and expected.

The point is, if those people could by and large get by, without feeling much inconvenience, with just a single car, that would be a big, big deal. It’s nowhere near a “ban cars” scenario that perhaps some people imagine. But it’s also half the number of cars for a great deal of the American middle and upper-middle class.

I’m thinking of this because I read this from Charles Marohn, in his nice recent piece “Questions From the Front Lines of the Housing Crisis”:

The tension residents feel around parking and cars is real. If everyone depends on driving for every trip, adding more housing naturally increases stress on the system.

But the solution isn’t to stop evolving. The solution is to create alternatives to constant car dependence.

The more people can walk or bike for short trips, the less pressure there is on parking and traffic. Even modest improvements matter. Sidewalks. Connected street networks. Local businesses near homes. Reliable regional transit links.

The goal is not to eliminate cars overnight. The goal is to gradually create a community where households can rely a little less on multiple vehicles.

(I would add, and I’m sure Marohn agrees, that the goal is not eliminate cars at all, but to gradually find a proper and less prominent place for them in our land use and transportation.)