While transportation used to absorb only one-tenth of a typical family’s budget (1960), it now consumes more than one in five dollars spent.● All told, the average American family now spends about $14,000 per year driving multiple cars.24 By this measure, this family works from January 1 until April 13 just to pay for its cars. Remarkably, the typical “working” family, with an income of $20,000 to $50,000, pays more for transportation than for housing.25
