Excerpt:

My high school civics teacher drew a pie chart to illustrate what share of our time and energy would be devoted to care and maintenance of a car (about a third of the pie). In the spirit of smart-ass teendom, I snarked, “What if we ride a bicycle?”

Bike commuting was unheard of in Los Angeles, but I knew I could save wages and work fewer hours than my classmates. The same teacher informed us that the U.S. automobile death and maiming toll is around 5 million people per year, dwarfing the devastation of the Vietnam War. Thirty-five years later, the statistic has hardly changed. This situation is considered “normal.” That’s why you don’t know it.