Automobile both enabled and undercut the American road trip ideal

The American road trip remains a powerful cultural ideal, associated with freedom, scenic discoveries and destinations such as the Grand Canyon, Yellowstone and Death Valley, even as many travelers now favor faster air travel or interstate routes. Its golden age came after World War II, when rising middle-class prosperity, automobile ownership and improved roads made family vacations by car widely accessible. Cheap airfare, concerns about safety and the push for convenience have since reduced the appeal of slower journeys through small towns and lesser-known landscapes. The broader question is what travelers may have lost as the automobile transformed road travel from an adventure into a means of reaching destinations as quickly as possible.