Sunday Dialogue - Changing Our Car Culture - NYTimes.com Readers debate how best to reduce our use of cars and gas. The Letter Readers React Mr. Salzman calls for politicians to lead "an adult conversation with America" on intelligent versus habitual motor vehicle use. When, pray tell, over the last 40 years, have politicians been able to lead any intelligent conversation on issues related to energy, technology and society? And does this proposed conversation take us down the road to a "user fee" or a tax that is sure to penalize most those Americans who have the least ability to pay it? Our unique long history with the car has made personal, flexible transportation and perceptions of freedom and autonomy as American as the Fourth of July. It is true that our reliance on the car and fossil fuels is out of balance, but the widespread diffusion of this technology is also in part responsible for the remarkable prosperity and opportunities we have enjoyed. The key to our future is not to conflate the car with fossil fuel use. Plug-in hybrids give us the thrills and autonomy of personal transportation, while diminishing our energy consumption. Changing our culture concerning electric cars and plug-ins will ultimately prove to be more decisive in our transition to a cleaner and healthier environment than a tax imposed by politicians who often serve special interests. The writer is a professor of history at the University of Dayton and the author of "The Automobile and American Life." The automobile has been around on a commercial basis for approximately 100 years but is unlikely to survive for another century. Congestion, energy scarcity, deteriorating infrastructure, fatalities and numerous other problems are prompting a transition. The challenge for coming decades is not to electrify the vehicle fleet, as some suggest, but to retrofit our communities to render the automobile irrelevant. Indeed, car use is already on the decline. The streetscape is being reappropriated in many cities for nonmotorized activities, and younger drivers are forsaking vehicle trips in favor of smartphones and other means of "virtual mobility." A growing proportion of 17- and 18-year-olds is not even bothering to get a driver's license. This trend is apparent in most wealthy countries. It has, for instance, become increasingly common in Japan to speak of "kuruma banare," which can be roughly translated as "walking away from the car." We may have already begun to reach the end of the automobile era. The writer is an associate professor of environmental policy and sustainability at the New Jersey Institute of Technology.