That Europeans are irresistibly flocking to car ownership is all the more shocking given the significant financial hurdles that exist for car owners.  Gas continues to be twice as expensive in Europe as in the U.S. and the price of a car, including taxes and fees, is higher than in the U.S.  I suspect that the high cost of car ownership has a perverse affect: owning a car, especially one with American-style proportions, is an obvious sign of affluence on a continent that has historically provided fewer opportunities for conspicuous consumption than the U.S.   Furthermore, as successive generations of Europeans grow up with unquestioned access to a car and a growing disregard for distance, their fondness for Europe’s strict land use restrictions wanes, and their relationship to the region’s fabled rail network becomes more tenuous.   The car also offers an escapist solution to the tightening confines of a Europe characterized by intensifying class and ethnic divisions.

All of this is not to suggest that our Dutch relatives had difficulty adjusting to our carless lifestyle.  Rides downtown on the bus for sightseeing were consistently met with enthusiasm, and reliance on the bike for trips to the store or friends’ houses was not viewed as some bizarre oddity.  Our greatest challenge turned out to be finding enough bikes for our large group.  Luckily, my failure to dispose of our used bikes left us with a fleet large enough for two families.   The fact remains: even if you choose to spend your time in the Netherlands in the car, the bike is an inseparable part of Dutch culture.  And, unlike the average American, the Dutch do not view the words car and transportation as synonyms.  Transportation in Europe is multi-modal by definition and the car, although growing in use, is still a luxury.

The rise of the car in Europe leaves the U.S. with a curious opportunity.  Alternative transportation advocates have long looked to Europe as the model for a less car-centric transportation system, and yet Europe seems to be simultaneously adopting our worst habits.  Any success we have in loosening the grip of the car on everyday life may prove useful to European policymakers scratching their heads over the car’s imperviousness to even the most formidable of obstacles to ownership.  As the unquestioned inventors of the car culture, we may be uniquely qualified to discover the antidote.   But we need to work quickly.  Any solution cannot come soon enough for a Europe slowing losing its way.