We ask you

Do cars make us happy?

A summary of interviews in social studies comparing the life with and without cars.

In the mobile societies of Western Europe and North America about 400 to 500 of 1000 inhabitants have a car. This is 60 - 90% of all households, depending on the country. Due to the serious ecological impact in particular for global warming the question arises if the automotive society is a paradigm for upcoming countries in the world.
But besides from rational considerations, also another question arises: "Do cars make us happy?"

Germany is an ideal country to study this question. The car industry is strong, the street and highway network well developed and most households are equipped with a car. 80% of all distances covered (person kilometres) are covered by cars. On the other hand there is a dense railway network and public transport in larger cities is well organised.

People have been asked what impact it has on their life to have a car but also not to have a car.

The car - a blessing or a curse?
 

If directly asked 54% of the Germans state that they are fascinated by driving, 65% of the men and 45% of the women. This is in particular the case for the young (71% in the age group 18-25) and decreases continuously with age. For the youth getting the driving licence became nearly an initiation ceremony, the door to the adult world.
In this fascination the personal income and education does not play a major role. Also those who care more about our environment share the fascination for driving. And the carless do not have any negative attitude towards cars or complain more about traffic than the car drivers themselves. So the German society can be regarded as very car-friendly.

Does a car increase life quality?

In contrast to the general opinion and the nimbus of cars there are only minor indications that cars increase the quality of life. 59% of people living in households without cars said that they are happy with their leisure time, while only 46% of car drivers said so. Social life does not really change much without car. Car drivers tend to undergo wider excursions to the countryside with their cars, but they do not spend more time outdoors or participated more in social life. The activity in clubs and societies or the frequency of participation in nightlife is not different for car owners and carless people.

How does the car change the mobile life?

The investment of buying a new car causes usually the wish to make use of it. People owning a car go significantly less by train and do for example invest seldom in a rail card for long term price reduction in rail traffic. Nevertheless in Munich 35% of all households with car have also a long term ticket for public transport, since in city traffic for example underground and tram are often more convenient than getting stuck in traffic jam or not finding a parking spot with the car. Car owners go nearly as much by bike as carless.
 

When do we miss the car?

As soon as we have a car, we tend to get used to it. People without car miss it much less than car owners assume they would miss it in a carless household.

People living without car in Munich miss it very often or often (values 5 and 4 on a scale from 1 to 5) for transport of large goods or for larger shopping, some also for week-end trips. In all other cases (illness, child care, visiting relatives, nightlife, way to work) a car seems to be less important. As a consequence people do not feel very much disadvantaged if not having a car or regret not to have bought one.

Persons in households with car have been asked: If you would not have a car, how often would you miss it for ... ? The columns show the percentage of the answers "very often" and "often"
People with car estimate the dependence on the car much higher than the carless experience it.

8. on the right:
Persons in households without cars are asked: How often do you have the feeling to be limited in acting and moving due to the lack of a car?

Click the graphs in order to see a larger view!

Reactions of the people around

In an automotive society carless households are a minority. You are surrounded by people who have a car. How do the  others react?
The careless people asked told basically about positive reactions. On the one hand this is not surprising because everybody tends to choose a social environment (friends, colleagues, neighbours) that accepts his personal attitude and lifestyle. In most cases there is positive feedback and a bit of negative feedback in parallel. However, there is no indication that careless have to feel as outsiders although car owners may tend fear this if they would give up their car.

The advantages

Finally, people in households with and without car in Munich have been asked about advantages of their choice. Generally it is difficult to see advantages in not owning something. However, traffic jam, high gasoline prices, lack of parking spots and the permanent costs of insurance and repairing you avoid, may give you sometimes a positive feeling.
Generally car owners are more often happy to have a car than persons without car to have none. If asked for concrete advantages environmental protection comes back to the mind of people in carless households, although it does not play any role in the decision for buying a car.

Conclusion

Based on a generally positive attitude towards cars and strong emotional fascination by driving many people expect that a car improves the life quality very much. However, in particular in city households life with and without car is not very different and people in carless households are impartially seen not less happy with their life than car owners and do very seldom feel disadvantaged.

Read more in “Households with and without cars”

The results presented on this page are based on a study carried out in 2002 and published in 2003 by Prof. Peter Preisendörfer and Maren Rinn "Haushalte ohne Auto" (households without car).