Who Doesn’t Have a Car?

Access to transportation in the United States is critical to finding employment and commuting to work, going to school, seeing doctors, or simply getting groceries. But elected officials and government policymakers often have a limited understanding of their constituents’ access to transportation options; in particular, the millions of too-often invisible Americans who cannot or choose not to drive. 

To help fill this information gap, NRDC built a dashboard that begins to capture the scale and complexity of Americans who do not or cannot regularly drive. Our findings show that this group—often overlooked in planning and policy decisions—is both large and diverse. Our dashboard captures nuances of groups whose relationships with driving and car dependency are shaped by financial strain, disability, car scarcity, caregiving responsibilities, age, and location. By better understanding who relies on buses, trains, active transportation, and safe streets, decision-makers can improve mobility for all people, especially those who don’t currently drive and those who want to drive less.

We estimate that 36 percent of Americans over the age of 10 do not or cannot rely on a personal vehicle to meet their daily travel needs, including nearly 16 million (or 1 in 20) Americans of driving age who live in homes without any personal vehicles. Our estimate focuses on Americans who are at least 10 years old, since this group has independent travel needs.

The dashboard map focuses on the spatial distribution of people in zero-car households. After decades of car-oriented planning, policy, and investments in many areas, those in zero-car households can be left with relatively low levels of mobility and access. The map layer of public transit routes attempts to differentiate areas with reasonable non-auto mobility options, but in reality, the benefits and difficulties of car-free living depend on personal habits and needs, which is why the dashboard also provides research to better understand the transportation choices and potential areas of improvement for key, highly impacted populations. 

NOTE: This map is best viewed on a desktop/laptop/tablet; on mobile, the map is best viewed in Chrome.

A vision for a fair transportation future

The stakes of investing in transportation options beyond cars are high for all Americans, not just for those who don’t drive. For the average American household, transportation is the second-largest household cost after housing. Fueled by a lack of high-quality travel options besides driving (and thus, a broad dependence on cars and trucks), transportation is the largest U.S. source of greenhouse gas emissions and a major source of air pollution. Motor vehicles are also one of the leading causes of death in the United States, with more than 40,000 deaths annually due to crashes—roughly the same as 109 Boeing 747s crashing annually. 

The choices that federal and state agencies make about transportation spending directly shape both our climate future and how people access the resources they need to succeed. Today, just 1 percent of total transportation infrastructure spending pays for sidewalks and bike paths. Another 24 percent funds public transit. The vast majority of public dollars spent on “surface” transportation are devoted to roads and highways meant for vehicle travel. This leaves the one in eight Americans who walk, bike, or ride public transit with underfunded, unsafe, and inefficient options for getting to work or school and completing everyday tasks.

Solutions to this problem are well established—most important among them, the shifting of transportation investment priorities to give all Americans the freedom to choose how we move. This requires action at all levels of government. Local governments can concentrate new development in transit-oriented communities and design streets that are safe for people traveling by foot or bicycle. State elected officials can “fix it first” or ensure that state transportation budgets fund road maintenance, public transit, and safe streets before expanding existing highways and adding even more traffic to our roads. And Congress can ensure the next surface transportation bill grows funding for public transit.

By advancing these proven solutions (and other policies, like those included in NRDC’s Getting Transportation Right), transportation decision-makers can cut household transportation costs and foster healthier, safer, and more connected communities. Our partners in the Clean RIDES Network have estimated that passing policies supporting more transportation choices in just seven states would save the average household $1,678 per year while preventing more than 100,000 premature deaths from air pollution and car crashes between now and 2050. 

By investing transportation dollars in clean transportation options, we can build a system that ensures no Americans get left behind—and that’s a future that all Americans can get behind.