Changing Driving Behavior Or How People Use Cars

There are dozens of good commercial and government applications for electrical vehicles, and some of them even make economic sense:-) The truth about battery powered electric cars for private ownership is that without a major and unexpected breakthrough in battery technology they will never be more than urban, short-haul vehicles. For many observers, this means that battery powered cars have no place in the American setting, but I believe they could prove a valuable lever for changing driving behavior. The problem, from the standpoint of a small government advocate, is that it would take a massive government intervention, in the form of electric car subsidies and gasoline taxes to bring it about.

Americans are rich. You can argue that we’re poorer than our parents generation, and in some ways that may be true, but we’re all rich compared to the average Joe of 100 or more years ago who spent most of his time worrying about getting enough to eat or wear. The problem with this wealth is that people can afford to indulge in bad behavior, like driving overweight, overpowered, inefficient gasoline vehicles. As the recent price bump in gasoline demonstrated, doubling the price from around $1.50 to $3.00 a gallon had only a modest effect on changing American’s driving behavior – we’re addicted to gas.

But what if the government slapped a $3 per gallon tax on gas, bringing the price up to European levels. I’m not suggesting that the price paid for gas in England or Germany is in any sense a "correct" price, but I’m pretty sure it would be enough to start changing the driving behavior of people at the lower end of the income scale. Unfair? Absolutely, which is why the government should take that money and spend it on subsidizing electric cars, so the people who can no longer afford a gas guzzler will have little choice but to buy one.

So why do I think it’s a good idea to essentially force a segment of the population into a technology that’s more expensive than running gasoline cars on an unsubsidized basis? Because the limited range and charging requirements will actually start changing the way those people use cars. The private car won’t be some sort of get-away toy for them, it will be a way to commute to a fairly close job or school. People will be forced to learn to make one or two intelligent shopping trips a week, rather than jumping in the car for the mall every time something comes up, and the rest of the time they’ll be stuck with public transportation or walking.

I’ll be one of those people if the day comes, it won’t be out of economic need (hopefully) but because I believe in the limited use model. I rarely drive my own car more than once a week, unless I’m helping friends with a construction project out in the sticks. Somehow, we’ve gotten stuck on the notion that an unlimited cruising range car is a right, in the constitutional sense, when it’s only the last hundred years that the car has been around. There are plenty of cost effective alternatives to owning a gasoline car for the occasional long haul trip most people make, like car clubs or rentals. Technology isn’t just advancing at a rapid pace, it’s pretty good already. It’s our driving habits that need improving.