KEY POINTS:
It is known as the Inland Empire, a vast stretch of land tucked in the high desert valleys east of Los Angeles. Once home to fruit trees and Indians, it is now a concrete sprawl of jammed freeways, endless suburbs and shopping malls.
But here, in the heartland
of the four-wheel drive, a revolution is under way. What was once unthinkable is becoming a shocking reality - America's all-consuming love affair with the car is fading.
Soaring petrol prices have worked where environmental arguments have failed. Many Americans have long been told to cut back on car use. Now, paying US95c ($1.30) a litre for fuel, they have no choice.
Take Adam Garcia, a security guard who works near the railway station in Riverside. Like many Inland Empire residents, he commutes 160km a day. He used to think nothing of it. But now, faced with petrol costs that have tripled, he is taking action. He has even altered the engine of his car to boost its fuel economy.
"I have to. Everyone does. I can't afford to drive as much as I did," he said.
Recent figures showed the steepest monthly drop in miles driven by Americans since 1942. At the same time car sales are collapsing, led by huge SUVs. General Motors, once the image of American industrial might, is in deep trouble. Cities are now investing in mass transit, hoping to tempt people back into town centres from far-flung commuter belts where they are now stranded by high petrol prices.
Jonathan Baty used to be a pioneer. The lighting designer has biked to work every day since 1993. It's a 14km round trip through the heartland of a car-based culture once famously termed 'Autopia'.
But now Baty has company on his daily rides as others choose two wheels rather than four to navigate southern California's streets.
"We have seen a whole emergence of a bike culture in this area. There is a crescendo of interest," said Baty, who does volunteer work for a cycling group, Bicycle Commuter Coalition of the Inland Empire.
In Riverside, bus travel is up 12 per cent on a year ago, rising to 40 per cent on commuter routes. Use of the town's railway link is up 8 per cent.
Use of a local car pooling system is up 40 per cent. It is the same in the rest of the US. In South Florida a light rail system has reported a 28 per cent jump in passengers. In Philadelphia one has shown an 11 per cent rise. Even scooter sales have risen.
At the same time car sales are hitting 15-year lows. Last week, big American car-makers reported an 18 per cent drop in car sales.
The numbers point to a more fundamental shift. In America, car sales carry a symbolic value that transcends the wheeler-dealering of the showroom. This is a nation of fabled road trips and Route 66.
"There is an American dream of mobility and freedom and wealth. The car is part of all that," said Professor Michael Dear, an urban studies expert at the University of Southern California.
In the 50s the confident nation that helped win World War II was expressed in classic car designs of huge fins and open tops. By the 90s it had become the Hummer, a huge hulking car born from the military.
Now there is to be another shift. For, hidden within the car sales figures, is a more complex story than a simple fall. Sales of big cars are plummeting, and smaller vehicles, especially fuel-efficient hybrids, are replacing them.
GM has now closed SUV production at four plants. Its Hummer brand is up for sale, or might even be closed. GM is ploughing huge resources into its 2010 launch of the Chevy Volt, a hybrid car that may get up to 240km a gallon. It needs to. GM's share price recently hit a 54-year low, prompting one top investment bank to warn that the firm could go bankrupt.
As Americans enjoyed the July 4 holiday weekend, increasing numbers were staying home rather than hitting the road. Newspapers were full of tips for "stay-cations", not weekend breaks away.
Customs once scorned, such as car pooling and cutting out trips to the mall, are now commonplace. The fact is the vast majority of Americans cannot give up their cars altogether. Too many cities lack reliable public transport.
Adam Garcia is one of those caught. He does two jobs and his daily road trip by car is a necessity.
"We don't have much of a choice. I have to drive," he said.
But America's changing relationship with the car is just part of the story of how the most powerful nation is changing in the face of the oil price rise. America has been built on an oil-based economy, from its office workers in the suburbs to its farmers.
Since the 50s and the building of the pioneering car-orientated suburb of Levittown in Long Island, the American city has been designed for the convenience of the car as much as its human inhabitants.
People live miles away from jobs, shops or entertainment. If you take away cars, the entire suburban way of life collapses.
Chris Fauchere, a Denver-based film-maker is producing a documentary on the issue, called The Great Squeeze.
Fauchere's film, due out this year, aims to tackle the profound changes caused by a world where oil is becoming scarcer. He does not think that is going to be easy for America to make the adjustment.
"It is going to be tough. It is like a chain reaction through the economy. But if you look at history, it is only crisis that starts change," he said.
In effect, suburbs will become the new inner cities, even as once-abandoned American downtowns are undergoing a remarkable renaissance.
The American dream of the last half century is thus changing. The car and its culture is now under a pressure unimaginable even a few years ago.
CARS: STEINBECK TO JAMES DEAN
* The Grapes of Wrath John Steinbeck's classic novel follows 14 passengers and a dog as they set out from the Oklahoma dust bowl for California in a decrepit sedan. "The ancient Hudson, with bent and scarred radiator screen ... with hub caps gone and caps of red dust in their places - this was the new hearth, the living centre of the family; half passenger car and half truck, high-sided and clumsy."
* On The Road Written in April 1951, Jack Kerouac's autobiographical account of a road trip across the US and Mexico with Neal Cassady is the definitive account of American wanderlust.
* Rebel Without a Cause James Dean's fate is sealed when he accepts the challenge to a Chickie Race from the high-school gang of Buzz Gunderson. The game ends in tragedy for Buzz, when his car goes over the cliff. Dean was later to die when he crashed his Porsche Spyder.
* Bullitt The 1967 Dodge Charger was the most elegant car of Detroit's muscle era. The car, with its sinister occupants, is destroyed by Steve McQueen in a Ford Mustang GT Fastback, and consumed in a ball of flames. This is the climax to nine minutes and 42 seconds of cinematic car intensity in San Francisco.
- OBSERVER
