The future has never felt more uncertain. Our economy and our society are built on the premise that most working age people are, in fact, working and earning money. The artificial intelligence (AI) juggernaut is prompting some observers to wonder what will happen if an increasing number of people have to settle for lower paying jobs or are unable to find any employment at all.
To prepare for this possibility, cities should be looking at ways to reduce the cost of living. Housing takes the biggest chunk of the average household budget in the US. Some experts advocate lowering housing costs by doing whatever it takes to turbocharge housing development, including sprawl. In this piece, Make America Sprawl Again? – Ecocities Emerging, I argued that sprawl is not the answer to the housing crisis, particularly considering the fact that birthrates are falling and US population will decline sooner than most people think even if the US ultimately reverses the nativism of the current federal administration.
In addition to all its other ills, sprawl is bad for the fiscal health of cities, as I wrote in my August 2025 article Sprawling into Debt – Ecocities Emerging. Based on the work done by Strong Towns, this article explains how sprawl requires the life-long maintenance of too much infrastructure paid for by too little taxable value per acre. Unless low-density cities postpone infrastructure maintenance, they will be forced to raise property tax rates or impose other taxes to offset the shortfall. Taxes are the second biggest expenditure in the budgets of the average US household. Consequently, sprawl is the wrong way for cities to reduce cost of living in a future where people could have lower incomes.
Local Decisions Affect the Household Cost of Transportation
Transportation is the third biggest cost to average US households. The average US household spends twice as much on transportation as on food. A city’s car dependency significantly affects household transportation costs. Shown below, 25.2 percent of household budgets go to transportation in Phoenix versus 12.7 percent in Washington, DC
Much of this difference comes from the quality and use of public transportation systems. But cities can also reduce transport costs with diverse, multi-use neighborhoods in which jobs, schools, shopping, entertainment, parks, public facilities and other everyday destinations can be reached on foot or by bicycle. This development model has been promoted as 15-minute cities, meaning the city’s neighborhoods are so diverse and walkable/bikeable that people can get around without always using a car and ideally can downsize to one car per household or zero cars per household.
In the US, each car costs an average over $12,000 per year to buy, fuel, insure, register, and repair. The ownership of one car represents over 14 percent of the median US annual household income of $84,000. Even worse, the ownership of one car could theoretically consume 80 percent of the income of someone living on the federal minimum wage of of $7.25/hour.
By building transportation systems primarily for the speed and convenience of cars, the United States has largely ignored the mobility needs of the young, the old, and those who cannot afford a car. The future income of many people, particularly retirees, is uncertain. But cities offering affordable mobility will have a better chance of thriving in a future in which fewer people have stable employment and a steady income.
Some European cities have been building multi-modal transportation systems after acknowledging the reality of traffic fatalities, the high cost and injustice of car-centricity, and the impact of car dominance on the environment, human health, and the quality of city life.
Many US cities are in the process of rebalancing their transportation systems to look more like the leading cities in Europe. However, the Trump Administration would rather perpetuate American dependence on cars and oil as illustrated in my recent guest opinion letter to Streetsblog: Commentary: US DOT’s Misguided War on Bikeways — Streetsblog USA and my February 2026 article for Ecocities Emerging : Support People-Friendly Mobility – Ecocities Emerging. The rest of this article picks a few examples of the trend to car-lite European cities as elaborated in my book On the Road to People-Friendly Mobility: A Progress Report from Europe and America which is free to download at People-Friendly-Mobility.pdf.
Amsterdam, Netherlands – Amsterdam became a world-class bike city with the help of protesters, political leaders, and a cycling organization that continues to collaborate with as well as watchdog the government. As of 2017, 68 percent of all work and school trips were by bike and Amsterdammers bicycled a total of two million kilometers every day.
Copenhagen, Denmark – To quote the Copenhagen bike plan: “Cycling is not a goal in itself but rather a highly-prioritized political tool for creating a more livable city.” Copenhagen combines political will and a steady funding stream to take its infrastructure to the next level with innovations like green waves, pacer lights, countdown clocks, real-time informational signage, and bike path traffic signals that prioritize cyclists. Copenhageners responded by cycling 1.44 million kilometers daily and making almost half of all school and work trips by bike.
Paris, France – Paris has always been known as a great walking city and its public transit system is considered one of best in the world. Recently, Mayor Anne Hidalgo has remained popular while making dramatic changes that have cut car use by 45 percent, increased public transportation ridership by 30 percent, and boosted cycling roughly 1,000 percent over the mode share statistics of the early 1990s. Only 30 percent of Parisians own cars.
Utrecht, Netherlands – Roughly 120,000 people bicycle to work, school, shopping, and public transit nodes every day here. Utrecht’s central rail station is the largest public transportation hub in the country and is supported by the world’s largest bike parking structure. Approximately 60 percent of trips into central Utrecht occur by bike while only 15 percent are by car. A fitting summation of Utrecht’s priorities came from Lott van Hooijdonk, Utrecht’s Vice Mayor: “You really have the idea that people are the boss of the city, not the machines.”
Antwerp, Belgium – As of 2023, almost 40 percent of all work trips occurred by bike here, surpassing the percent taken by car. In that year, bikes accounted for over 50 percent of trips to school and 42 percent of non-work/non-school trips.
Berlin, Germany –There appears to be strong political support here for people-friendly mobility considering this quote from Berlin’s Transport Senator, Regine Gunther: “The old mobility concept of the car-friendly city is reaching its limits… we want people to get rid of their cars.”
Bern, Switzerland – Bern’s former Director for Civil Engineering, Transport and City Greenspace offered this perspective “In the past, cars were the dominant mode of transport. This no longer meets the needs of the citizens of Bern. There is no such thing as ‘we have no space for bicycle infrastructure’. It’s just a matter of changing the paradigm and reallocating the existing space.”
Brussels, Belgium – Brussels aims to create dense, diverse neighborhoods in which all inhabitants can reach essential facilities and services with a 10-minute walk or bike ride. Walking, cycling, and transit already account for over two thirds of all travel here.
Hamburg, Germany – The overriding transportation goal of Hamburg is simply “fewer cars” according to Anjes Tjarks, the City’s Minister for Transport & Mobility Transition. Hamburg is building cycle paths at the rate of 60km per year to keep up with demand. As of 2022, cycling accounts for 22 percent of all traffic and is Hamburg’s fastest-growing transportation mode.
London, United Kingdom – London aims to become the world’s best big city for cycling. By 2023, the city had more than tripled its cycleway network, imposed a 20-mph speed limit on over half of all roads, increased cycling trips to over 1.2 million per day, and launched what is now one of the largest congestion charge zones in the world in order to reduce congestion, decrease pollution, and raise funds for the city’s transportation system.
Ljubljana, Slovenia – Ljubljana has joined with 25 surrounding municipalities in a plan aimed at extending people-friendly mobility throughout the metro area. The region’s overriding goal can be seen in this quote from the plan: “If you plan cities for cars and traffic, you get cars and traffic. If you plan for people and places, you get people and places”.
Toulouse, France – The 2023 Street Code promotes coexistence between all users by adding pedestrian zones, widening sidewalks, reducing speeds, and reconfiguring roadways for better balance between travel modes. The main message of the Toulouse Code de la Rue is “we are taking our foot off the gas”.
US Progress? As detailed in On the Road to People-Friendly Mobility, some US cities are emulating the reprioritization of public space seen in many European cities. However, the Trump administration seems determined to maintain and even increase car domination of our roadways. The US Department of Transportation recently clawed back previously-approved grants for pedestrian and cycling infrastructure claiming these projects were hostile to cars.
US cities that want to stay on track should recall the proven benefits of reducing car domination of our roadways: lowered traffic fatalities, decreased environmental degradation, better health, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, and overall improved quality of city life. But in addition, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure provides mobility options for those who cannot afford a car. And given the precarious nature of human employment and income, people-friendly mobility is one way for cities to prepare for an increasingly uncertain future.
Notes
Peitrzak, Adrian. 2019. Rent and Ride: Affordability Is About Both. Citizens Budget Commission. Accessed at Rent and Ride | Affordability is About Both.
Pruetz, Rick, 2025. On the Road to People-Friendly Mobility: A Progress Report from Europe and America. Free PDF at People-Friendly-Mobility.pdf.
