[robbyt]

People own private cars in the US because the real cost of owning a car is hidden from the car users. E.g., subsidized roads, gas, automobile industry bailouts, and finally global warming and climate impact.

European cities have far fewer cars than similarly sized American cities. Gas and car ownership taxes are are also more expensive in Europe compared to America. The reason for this is that the actual cost of car ownership in the US is being passed on to future generations.

[lazyjones]

> European cities have far fewer cars than similarly sized American cities. Gas and car ownership taxes are are also more expensive in Europe compared to America. The reason for this is that the actual cost of car ownership in the US is being passed on to future generations.

No, the reason for this is that European cities are much older and denser, hence streets are narrower, garages are often impossible to build. Gas is more expensive because most cities in Europe have to import it from far away and because taxes are generally higher, not because we're beacons of virtue while the USA is car owners' heaven.

Here in Austria, the average car owner pays a few 1000 $ per year in car-related taxes plus highway tolls, gas prices are high ($8-9 per gallon) and people are complaining just as much about the cost of car ownership being passed on to future generations or the general public. All while our car taxes/tolls are used to maintain highways and those are used by everyone's cargo deliveries, bus travels and so on.

[ianai]

Gas subsidies have to be amongst the worst things we’re doing to ourselves. But we’re practically forced to them because of the secondary price effects.

[deagle50]

This. If the true cost of driving was passed onto the consumer, cars would get dropped faster than cable TV.