The Central Myths of U.S. Car Culture

Five myths distort thinking about the role and importance of highways in American life, according to an article by David Zipper.

To open the article, Zipper speaks frankly about the role of highways in American life: "Even if you use a car to get to work — as roughly 85 percent of American commuters did before the pandemic — you might harbor some misperceptions about the pavement you drive on."

To illustrate the point, Zipper lists five myths about highways, listed below, but with more detail on each found in the source article:

• Wider highways let traffic move faster.
• Ninety-four percent of crashes are caused by human error.
• Congestion pricing hurts the poor.
• Gasoline taxes pay for highways.
• Americans love cars.

The source article is well cited to build its case for each of the myths listed above.