The History Behind Car (In)Dependence in the US vs World

World War II was the most important event in the 20th century and has had profound economic, cultural, political, technological, and infrastructure ramifications for nations across the world to this day. The sheer amount of destruction created from the bombing and destruction of the largest war in human history completely redefined the global power standing and created a new world for transportation to grow into. In terms of human cost, according to the National WWII Museum, there were civilian casualties upward of 45,000,000 and untold physical destruction of infrastructure in many nations, but especially in the Axis Powers. Furthermore, to illustrate the physical scale of destruction, below is a swiping image of Tokyo, Japan during the war compared to today. All in all, World War II played an integral role in creating a new foundation for a modern world with new transportation possibilities.

“We must build a new world – a far better world..." - Harry S. Truman

With each nation recovering from the war and despite the destruction surrounding them, the promise of a future in a new world impacted several nation's outlook and focuses for transportation in the future.

Following the war, there were a variety of themes that came into view that impacted the way each nation would construct their transportation infrastructure and how the economy, culture, politics, technology, and geography played a role. The themes below help illustrate the progression of transportation in the rest of the 20th century and entering the 21st century, with a distinct focus on how the car dependent culture in the US differs from others around the world.

To begin, the presence of capitalism in nations such as the United States, Japan, and Germany was integral in allowing for the growth in transportation. With an economic system suited for commercial competition, there were huge breakthroughs in technology, development, and production following the war that allowed for the growth of the car market and induced greater demand for the automobile in the United States than anywhere else in the world.

• Mass Motorization and Fordism: The ideas of mass motorization have their roots even before the war with Henry Ford and his production of the cheap and ubiquitous Model T. It is important to note that US infrastructure was untouched compared to the rest of the world following WWII, leading to an intact infrastructure primed to accommodate massive increases in consumer production as factories refocused from wartime military purposes to consumer purposes. The ability to produce such high volume of cars, when paired with the already supercharged industry production capabilities allowed for a quick transition into becoming one of the leading producers of automobiles in the world.

• Sloanism: Alfred Sloan, the president of GM, led a new charge of consumerism, spearheaded with the production of new colors and models every year, and the purchase of vehicles on credit, ultimately reflecting the transition into the new post World War II consumer market. Creating, producing, and selling new cars every year, Sloan became an industry icon and came to represent the broader American car culture unique to the rest of the world.
• Cheap Natural Resources: The prevalence of cheap natural resources, such as oil, metal, and rubber in the United States is a contributing economic factor in the US's dependence on the automobile and represents the perfect conditions to become a car giant. Nations such as Germany and Japan were (and still are) dependent on oil/gas importation as they simply do not have as many natural resources, forcing them to find alternatives to "fueling" the growth of the automobile industry.

• Taxes and Subsidies: The economic role of the government in car usage is also an important consideration for why and how dependent a nation is on the automobile. For example, in the US, "Gas taxes, tolls, and registration fees have covered about 60 or 70 percent of roadway expenditures" (Bloomberg) and income taxes, property taxes, etc. pay for rest. On the other hand, in Europe, taxes for driving exceed government expenditures which ultimately discourages driving and the ownership of a car due to its extra cost. All in all, investment in roads via subsidies has encouraged and allowed for greater car usage and dependency in US when compared globally.
• The Marshall Plan, which provided over $15 billion in economic aid, helped rejuvenate the economies of European powers such as Germany. According to History.com, "it was crafted as a four-year plan to reconstruct cities, industries and infrastructure heavily damaged during the war and to remove trade barriers between European neighbors—as well as foster commerce between those countries and the United States." The manifestation of these efforts can be seen in products such as the German Volkswagen Beetle "Bug", which was heavily exported to the United States, and represented the new Germany to the world.
• Japanese Industry: The US occupied Japan until 1952 and helped rejuvenate the industrial power of Japan, leading to the presence of Japanese companies such as Honda, Toyota, Yamaha, Yokohama, and Mitsubishi as major players in the global transportation market, which many of their exports recycling back to the United States, in the form of models such as the Honda Civic, whose small size and good gas mileage allowed it to gain prominence following the oil crisis in the 1970s, which hurt the pockets of the American consumer and significantly challenged the idea of driving for many individuals and families.

The sole economic power of the United States when paralleled to the weakened European and Asian powers who decided to pursue other forms of transportation out of necessity highlights how America actively chose to become dependent on the automobile, which might be explained further when investigating the next theme, culture.

Culture plays a huge role in American's attitude towards car usage and was clearly evident after the end of World War II and the expansion of consumerism. Ideas such as individualism were driving factors in the demand for automobiles and manifested themselves in American culture with the expansion of consumerism and a vision for a new world.

• Consumerism: The idea of consumerism, often under the same umbrella as ideas such as Sloanism and "Keeping up with the Joneses", played an integral part in creating the American car culture. The growth of the middle class allowed many young couples starting a family and moving into the suburbs to tap into the unique American version of individualism by affording to purchase an automobile. Therefore, there was a cultural demand for the expansion of car ownership in the United States, which is another contributing factor to explaining the discrepancy.
• On the other extreme is the idea of collectivism which is present in Japan. Instead of each individual investing in their own car as an expression of their individualism, many citizens in Japan just use public transportation, which prompted a cultural need for infrastructure and services such as the bullet trains in Japan.
• German culture is somewhere in between, as they have a culture that exhibits a strong attention to detail and rules. In addition, they have a strong car culture centered around the performance of cars such as BMWs, Mercedes, and Porsches on the Autobahn, an integral part of Germany. However, they also have a collective view of Europe, perhaps which derives from the damage they created in World War II, but has prompted investment in a capable and integrated public transportation infrastructure with systems such as Eurail, buses, and other trains.

Therefore, all in all, culture plays an important role in explaining the differences in what method of transportation is represented in each nation, but most importantly, also their level of reliance on the automobile.

• Road Standards: Compared to other parts of the world, the US had a quick adjustment to car usage and standards became mainstream quicker. It is likely that the quicker and more widespread use of cars in the US prompted the change in infrastructure and city planning before Europe or Asia. Therefore, the widespread use of cars prompted regulation and made automobile travel safer and more orderly in nature in the US than elsewhere.
• The Interstate System is perhaps the most important reason for US dependence on the car compared to the rest of the world and played a huge role in expanding its usage. While an infrastructure project, there was considerable political foundations in this project that were paramount to the success of the system. Eisenhower's Federal-Aid Highway Act of 1956, which provided a 90% match for states, was integral to establishing the infrastructure necessary to accommodate such large car usage.
• Zoning and Alternate Infrastructure: There are major zoning and infrastructure decisions made by local governments that impact a city's reliance on the automobile. For example, Amsterdam in the Netherlands has made a concentrated effort to encourage the use of bicycles with designated and distinct bike lanes parallel to automobile traffic.

• GI Bill: The GI Bill, while an economic plan, was a huge political effort to invest in the education of returning soldiers. The bill expanded higher education funding/opportunities and "As a result, almost 49 percent of college admissions in 1947 were veterans. The GI Bill opened the door of higher education to the working class in a way never done before" (History.com). This education boom directly contributed towards the growth of the middle class and increased the number of consumers who desired and were capable of purchasing new cars. Furthermore, "The government guaranteed loans for veterans who borrowed money to purchase a home, business or farm. These loans enabled hordes of people to abandon city life and move to mass-produced, “cookie cutter” homes in suburbia. This exodus from major cities would help shape America’s socioeconomic and political landscape for years to come. (History.com). Therefore, the GI Bill and its direct effects, including expanding the middle class and urban sprawl, were not present in other nations and played a direct role in helping create the unique American car culture and reliance on the automobile.

Technology also plays a huge role in the car dependence discussion. For example, the US has the technological know how to build and maintain a continent wide interstate system and produce new cutting edge cars and electric vehicles in the consumer market, Japan has the technology to have a bullet train system that travels at extreme speeds safely and reduces dependence on the automobile, Europe has the technology to provide integrated public transportation systems such as the Eurail, and Germany has the technological know how to cheat on US emissions tests. All of these technologies are unique to their home nation and reflect the planning and investment each has placed in pursuing their particular transportation vision. Given the role of technology in how dependent nations are on certain transportation systems and infrastructure, the actions of governments decades ago are coming into fruition in a modern, connected, and faster world where space and time are still the greatest challenges ahead of us and which we continue to look towards technology as the greatest possible solution.

To begin, often infrastructure and geography work hand in hand, with the former maximizing the usage of the latter, but often limited by it. Infrastructure and geography is a hugely important piece of the car dependence puzzle and help explain the transportation systems different countries and cities have invested in to maximize their transportation capabilities.

"You and I come by road or rail, but economists travel on infrastructure." - Margaret Thatcher

• The US has an extremely diverse and expansion geography that gives the nation the space and resources to have an Interstate Highway System, an effective system for automobile transportation across the North American continent.
• On the other hand, places such as Venice have incredible challenges when it comes to have any form of road infrastructure, meaning they must invest in other forms of transportation. Tokyo and many other cramped cities also face challenges, as they have nowhere to grow or construct roads and must turn to other alternatives.
• Germany, for example, is perhaps the best example of how to effectively use a developed car infrastructure such as the Autobahn while also maintaining a system of public transportation that taps into the broader integrated European transportation infrastructure.

In closing, all these themes overlap and connect with each other, making it hard to specify one as most directly responsible for the US's car dependence compared to the rest of the world. It goes without saying however that all of these themes played a huge role in the history of the dependance of the US and nations around the world on various transportation systems.

There are three main types of transportation, a car dependent, public transportation, and mixed strategy approach. While the US represents one end of the spectrum and nations such as Japan represent the other, Germany threads the needle in between the two and shows how car dependence, as illustrated by the existence of the Autobahn, can coexist with thriving public transportation. While not all of these below are car dependent nations and cities, they reflect a global view of transportation systems that highlight how dependent the US is on the automobile.

World War II was the shared foundational origin of a new world in terms of geopolitics, military power, technological development, infrastructure, culture, and governance. Through the ashes of the war rose new nations with strong but troubled histories with hope for a new world driven by the allure of the future. The greatest examples of nations redefined by World War II are the United States, Japan, and Germany. Given the concrete changes in infrastructure, productive capabilities, and workforces and paired with the longstanding cultures of each, these nations surged into the latter stages of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st with profoundly unique transportation systems.  

While much is known about the history behind countries' dependence on the automobile, there are many questions about the future of transportation. Technologies such as Autonomous Vehicles (AV), Electric Vehicles (EV) under development and production with companies like Tesla, smart infrastructure, and ride sharing services such as Uber, Lyft, etc give an exciting but unclear view into the future of the automobile and raise the question: Will the US and other nations be dependent on the automobile in the future, or will new technology make the car a thing of the past?