The growth and development of the automotive industry during the 20th century is a favorite case study of many smart business thinkers. It’s often cited as the triumphant success of an evolved transportation form—cars—over the backwards indignities of trams, horse-drawn carriages, and walking in streets soiled by aforementioned conveyance—the evolution generating healthy demand for an entirely new kind of product in the process.
If closely studied, elements of this arc offer instructive cases about manufacturing, leadership (I hope to cover Lee Iacocca, the iconic Chrysler and Ford executive, in a future issue of this newsletter), and innovation (particularly later in the century with the domination of Japanese imports), this linear progress narrative leaves out a crucial piece of the story.
What we forget is so baked into our national psyche that it’s easy to forget that its existence is a choice. You might even say it’s the water we swim in.
That’s right, traffic is a national (not to mention international) scourge. And while hedge funders whisked by Uber Black SUVs from their downtown apartments to their uptown penthouses after work everyday may experience the urban transportation puzzle as solved, the statistics show us that it is very much not.
INRIX, a transportation analytics firm, reported that Boston led American cities for worst congestion in 2019, costing the average commuter 149 hours that year. That’s more than six days. Per year.
Despite leading the rankings, Boston’s traffic problems were not that far outside the norm.
The report found that on average, Americans lost 99 hours a year due to congestion, costing them nearly $88 billion in 2019, an average of $1,377 per year. From 2017 to 2019 the average time lost by American drivers has increased by two hours as economic and urban growth continue nationally.
–INRIX
It also wreaks havoc on commuters’ psyches.
I can spend time in the end-of-the-day traffic being disgusted about all the huge, stupid, lane-blocking SUV’s and Hummers and V-12 pickup trucks, burning their wasteful, selfish, 40-gallon tanks of gas, and I can dwell on the fact that the patriotic or religious bumper-stickers always seem to be on the biggest, most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest [responding here to loud applause] — this is an example of how NOT to think, though — most disgustingly selfish vehicles, driven by the ugliest, most inconsiderate and aggressive drivers. And I can think about how our children’s children will despise us for wasting all the future’s fuel, and probably screwing up the climate, and how spoiled and stupid and selfish and disgusting we all are, and how modern consumer society just sucks, and so forth and so on.
–David Foster Wallace, “This is Water”
Traffic represents a profligate waste—hurting productivity and the environment in equal measure.
The transportation form that is supposed to have brought the economy into a new era is now shackling the feet of all those who ought to be propelling it forward—the workers who should be contributing further innovations rather than listening to yet another hour of All Things Considered, the parents and children who might be learning rather than honking and yelling at the Suburban blocking the school drop-off lane, the UPS drivers and short-haul truckers, whose cargo fuels the economy.
It’s exactly the opposite of the kind of economic productivity the automotive era was supposed to have unlocked. To make matters worse, the country is not just victims of automakers success in terms of volumes sold (and resulting overcrowding on roads), U.S. citizens are also victims of a concerted effort by automakers to erode every other form of transportation available—from heavy rail to trams to sidewalks.
So it’s here, deep into this litany that even you, dear reader, may be shouting at your screen: WE HAVE A SOLUTION!!
Autonomous Vehicles
To be continued…
Stay tuned for the second and final part of this essay in your inbox tomorrow.
This is a freeform daily newsletter about the transportation industry: Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. I will take shallow dives into topics that I think are interesting—and that offer valuable lessons. These will include looks at startups in the space, historical explorations, market analyses, company and personal profiles, interviews with industry players, and occasional personal essays.
Thanks for reading—and please let me know if you have any feedback or if there is anything you would like to see me cover.
Ride well,
DS