A century ago, Americans feared automobiles—and for good reason. In 1921 alone, cars killed 286 children in Pittsburgh, 130 in Baltimore, and 97 in Washington, D.C. Cities rang memorial bells for traffic victims, while rural communities threw stones at “horseless carriages” and strung ropes across roads to stop them. Newspapers called drivers “remorseless murderers,” viewing cars as dangerous toys for the wealthy rather than necessities.

Today, that hostility has vanished, replaced by what researchers call “motonormativity”—a collective blind spot that makes us ignore cars’ massive costs. The statistics are staggering: more Americans have died in car crashes than in all U.S. wars combined. The average driver spends over $750,000 on vehicles in their lifetime. If global SUVs were a country, they’d rank as the world’s fifth-largest carbon emitter.

This transformation didn’t happen naturally. Auto companies deliberately reshaped public perception, coining terms like “jaywalking” to blame pedestrians for traffic deaths and spending billions on ads selling fantasies of freedom and control. They succeeded so thoroughly that we now struggle to imagine alternatives, even as cars continue killing 39,000+ Americans annually while draining our wallets and poisoning our air.

But change may be coming. Recent books criticizing car culture are finding mainstream audiences, COVID-19 showed us car-free street possibilities, and cities like New York are implementing congestion pricing. After decades of car dominance, Americans might finally be ready to question whether our “love affair” with automobiles is worth the price we’re paying.