We travelled over 250 billion miles by car in the UK last year.
That's according to figures from the UK's Department for Transport.
In every region in England, except London, more than 70% of commuters travel to work by car.
In London, that figure's just 33%.
I've been in my car for about two miles now,
and according to a quick Google search in my 2014 course, I've omitted about 350 grams of carbon emissions.
That's the same as boiling the kettle five times.
So in a country where cars account for 90% of transport emissions, according to the RAC Foundation,
and we're already being encouraged to drive less for environmental reasons,
I want to find out what can be done to reduce our reliance on cars.
Welcome to LSE IQ,
an award-winning podcast where we ask social scientists and other experts to answer one intelligent question.
I'm Mike Wilkerson from the IQ team, where we work with academics to bring you their latest research and ideas,
and talk to people affected by the issues we explore.
Having just moved from London to a pretty rural part of the UK, I really felt like I needed to drive.
So I took and passed my test last year, but it made me wonder, how much do we really need to drive?
I find out why that empty bus lane in back-to-back traffic is actually a good thing,
and whether driverless cars will make rural parts of the UK easier to get to.
Let's step back for a moment and think about what the car is really promising us to do.
That's Philip Rode, the director at LSE Cities.