I'm an American guy heading towards 60. I grew up a car guy, but living in Vienna for 30 years, I no longer am. My son, born here, has never seen a car as anything more than transportation, and a luxury version of it at that (he's even more privileged than I am).

40 years ago when I was a young man, there were half as many people and half as many cars on the road. A road trip can still be fun, but if you are spending huge amounts of time in traffic, not so much.

Today we have cellphones, GPS, and other electronics that were science fiction 40 years ago. Driving off onto a "white space" on the map means having your car fitted with skis and shipped to Antarctica. That turns the "freedom" knob on your car's dashboard down to "3" when it was at "11" back in the day.

Even more people live in big cities. In Europe, that means a car isn't really necessary unless you're leaving the city, and even then, it is a luxury.

These trends in lifestyle don't even touch on how the internet allows you to play games, chat, and collaborate (work or study) a huge percentage of the time without needing to go to the other person's home. This also reduces