i find it interesting that fairly often people ask what other people should be doing.
it may be that you live in NY, where owning a car really isn’t necessary.
if you lived in west texas, where there is no public transportation, it would be a very different story.
(i was just there, unfortunately.)

in fact, i live at the top of a rather steep hill.
and there isn’t a bus.
i’d have to take a taxi every time i came home.
particularly if i had a bag of groceries.
if i wanted to visit some friends 10 miles or so away, i’d be looking at 3 different public transportation rides, each way.
turns out that i’m somewhat forgetful these days.
i can run down to the market in 20 minutes, or depend on the once every 1/2 hour bus.
and take a taxi back up the hill that i’m really not inclined to carry a gallon or 2 of milk up.

it may be that you don’t mind being tied to public transportation.
however there are lots of us that find it quite hampering.
it’s not that we drive an SUV to go get our groceries.
but at the same time, we’d rather not be restricted to the local bus schedule, and not go anywhere on Sunday.

Clearly there are people that waste more gas than would seem appropriate.
if that’s your problem, then maybe you ought to lobby to set the gas tax where it should be for a nation that imports 50% of it’s oil.
maybe $5 a gallon.

btw, you should be even more upset at the national debt that’s been building for 30 years now, with no end in sight.
but

The "private automobile" is one component of a larger addiction – our addiction to cheap fuel, which enables a culture of conspicuous consumption (public and private). Someone above suggested that they are not contributing to the pollution, energy waste, and material and economic waste you speak of because they do not drive; they walk or take the train. Do you agree with that?

I don’t. Our addiction does not solely pertain to the cars we do (or do not) drive. Only 30% of carbon dioxide emissions are attributable to automobiles. We leave our lights on without thinking twice. We play (amazingly fun) video games for hours on end which require a significant amount of energy to function and enumerable resources to build and ship around the world. We eat food (both veggies and meats (especially in the United States)) that are produced with fertilizers made with petroleum, farmed with machines powered by petroleum, and supplemented with high corn fructose syrup (extremely water intensive and terribly harmful to our health), for the purpose of making our food cheaper. We want to eat more, and have no idea how wasteful, polluting and dangerous that processes that enable us to do so are to ourselves and planet. We are deforesting our planet at rapid rates to power and build our material obsession. Do you know how much top soil has disappeared in the last thirty years? By the way – we need topsoil to grow food.

We can waste because we can. Is it worth it? Not for my children. Certainly not for my grandchildren. We are eating their food today.

Is it worth it? I’ll ask the same question differently. How selfish are you?

The candle has been burning at both ends for a long time and long before we see the world run out of oil, we’ll see more and more of these panicky accidents like the Gulf. It has the potential to devastate all life in its path just as sure as if it were a broken nuclear reactor.