Readers debate how best to reduce our use of cars and gas.

The Letter

To the Editor:

Americans pay too little for gasoline and diesel, and our subsequent driving of 2.9 trillion miles annually is a key factor in our trade deficit, military excursions, health and obesity crisis, air and water pollution, and greenhouse emissions. We keep hoping to defeat congestion by building highways — a counterproductive proposition. The United States enjoys the second-lowest gasoline prices in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development after oil-exporting Mexico and, adjusted for inflation, we don’t pay that much more than what our grandparents paid in the 1920s.

While oil worldwide costs the same, other nations put higher fees on gasoline and diesel consumption. Japan’s high gas taxes make its 127 million people a huge test market for energy efficiency, while our lower taxes cajoled Detroit into selling gas-guzzling S.U.V.’s.

Of course, decreasing driving in a culture famed for its “love affair with the automobile” is difficult. No one, yet everyone, is to blame for our national default position of key in the ignition to get anywhere, everywhere and — often — nowhere. Our politicians are not willing to tell us the most inconvenient of inconvenient truths.

If we’d use our cars smarter, we’d mitigate a host of problems and prevent our grandchildren from following our children in fighting wars in the Middle East.