On Cars and Driving Habits

Cars in Europe are usually much smaller on average than we are used to in the States. I've always admired this about Europe -- that and the excellent, extremely widespread and efficient public transportation. It still galls me that there is no way to get from the city where I live in Georgia to the airport or anywhere in Atlanta without a car.

I remember the first time I ever came overseas, for a year abroad in France 25 years ago. One of my very first impressions of Paris (where my plane landed) was that everything somehow seemed smaller and more compact. Okay, I know and appreciate how grand and beautiful Paris is. I don't mean literally smaller. But somehow it all felt more closed in, compact, with narrow streets (except of course for those Grands Boulevards), no lawns (though many public parks), smaller sidewalks, and so on. From the taxi that took me on a wild ride from one train station (where the train from the airport left me) to another train station (where I could find a train to the city I would live in -- Dijon), I had views of this amazing city that I'd studied so much about. And my initial impression included thinking that it seemed compact or miniature, especially compared to what I was accustomed to up until then, Metro Detroit (kingdom of the automobile and all things designed for it). I think my impression of Paris as compact was largely based on the cars being uniformly so small.

As I walk down the street here and see all the cars parked on the side of the road (parallel parked very tightly), there is nary a one bigger than my car at home (a Ford Focus ZX3 -- hatchback). In fact my car would be considered a fairly large, nice, family car here. Whenever I've brought this up in the States, there's always someone who says, "It's because gas is so expensive over there! That's the only reason they drive those crummy little cars." Gas is more expensive here, but at least for good reason -- government taxes that support things like public transportation. It's not just going into the pockets of oil tycoons, which is the only reason prices seem to go up at home. So I think it' something like $1.5 per liter (~$6 per gallon) for gas here.

But I also remember having conversations with French friends way back when about why they all like small cars (as they said they did). And mostly it seemed to be that compact cars were in their minds cool, sexy, and svelte, because you could zip around town in them, park easily, and so on (all reasons I'm realizing as I write this that I like small cars as well). Plus, they would say, you get good gas mileage and know you are doing something a little better for the environment.

Anyway, coming from the U.S., the smallness of all the cars here is one of the things that strikes you most as you walk down the street. In fact when you see a bigger car, like an S.U.V. or a Minivan, that is what strikes you as out of place and unusual. And I have yet to see a pick-up truck, so ubiquitous back home, especially in the South.