Our love affair with cars may be ending.

The debate about when the planet will reach ‘peak oil’ – or maximum oil production, causing a subsequent spike in oil prices – has continued unabated since the 1950s. But ‘peak auto’ may have already come and gone, unnoticed. A recent study from the University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute on driving habits should make anyone involved in public policy or who earns a living in the auto industry sit up and take notice.