On the bus?

I've heard that in cities like, Oregon, Seattle, and San francisco, people are likely to look funnily at you, if you're not on a bike or on foot and are always in your car, behind the wheels.

All three cities have superb mass-transit as alternative to driving, giving people the option to not drive when they don't want to. 

According to a study published by U.S. Pirg, a non-profit advocacy group, this culture, marked by a preference for biking, walking and availing of mass transit if available, is spreading from out of the ecology-minded Pacific Northwest to other places like Charlotte, North Carolina, among others.

The downshifting in American driving patterns--fewer Millennials, or the "Internet"-generation, care to be enchanted by the prospects of being "in control" behind their wheels, or care to wait impatiently for their licences--is interestingly enough, noticeable most prominently among the highly-educated, affluent youth of America. 

But this tiny demographic also has an outsized pocket, i.e. is a demographic with the cultural and economic power to induce larger shifts in ways of living. So, the projection is that local governments will be pressured into investing more and more money in the building of infrastructure like mass transit and spend less on highways.

Does this mean that America has to produce a suitable epic to match a growing disenchantment with the "road?" 

Remember Jack Kerouac's epic that was symbolical of a traditional American craving--the desire for unbounded freedom experienced on the highways of the nation, inside a car, behind the wheels?

Perhaps, it's time for something like "On the Bus?"

For a fuller appraisal of the phenomenon see here.