Death of the Great American Road Trip

Death of the Great American Road Trip

What caused its downfall and why it matters.

Sean Kernan

Oct 24, 2026

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Every summer, we packed our busted up 1988 Plymouth Reliant until the trunk was filled to the brim.

It was an eyesore even by the standards of the late eighties, a boxy beige sedan with a dented rear quarter panel and a muffler that announced us two blocks before we arrived.

Shannon (my sister) and I often shared the back seat as my dad stared dead-faced at the highway, probably trying to go to a happy place in his mind.

The trip was taken several times a year from Virginia (or DC) to Merritt Island, Florida to visit my grandparents.

And of course, my parents always concluded these trips could only be done in one day—because hotels were a foreign concept.

It was a long 13 hours, though we sometimes shaved an hour or two off that time as dad sent our car screaming down I-95. I still can’t comprehend that we never got pulled over. Yet I get a ticket for going 10 over in 55.

We often shared the backseat with a 100 pound Gordon Setter, Trapper, whose pendulous tongue was always flapping in the wind like it w as trying to escape his face, flinging drool on the back seat with every gust as Shannon and I ducked for cover.

Despite these discomforts we got a full snapshot of America on this drive. Virginia startedoff with rolling farmland and tired barns, cows standing in fields like they’d been told to wait there in 1950 and never got the follow-up memo. Somewhere in North Carolina the hardwoods gave way to endless rows of pine, so straight and evenly spaced they looked planted by a machine, because, in many cases, they were. The soil turned a rusty red along the shoulders, and tobacco fields stretched out flat toward farmhouses with wraparound porches.

Sometimes, Shannon and I did the “honk” gesture, pulling our hands down at passing truck drivers. They often startled us by obliging our request. We played card games and read books, avoiding the boredom these trips inevitably induced.

We listened to dusted-off audiobooks from the library. They consisted of 8 to 12 cassettes per book which we were constantly fumbling with as chapters ended. The world was so much more analog back then.

We eventually upgraded to a minivan. It felt like we were living the high life, though my folks were too cheap to tint the windows, putting our fair skinned genetics at the full mercy of the sun. We sometimes felt like melting fire ants as our clear windows doubled as magnifying glasses.

But today, oddly enough, I look back fondly on those experiences—and it makes me sad that road trips are now going away. Here’s why and what we will actually miss out on.

Origins of the road trip

Road trips

gained popularity following

World War II. Many men who enlisted were flown abroad, thousands of miles from the small town they’d never left.

And when they returned after the war, many of them had the full travel bug. The war had opened their eyes to the value of seeing new places and exploring. This was also when the construction of interstate highways came into bloom. During the war, legislatures realized just how disconnected our states were and how difficult it was for some people to get to military bases and transport basic goods.

Mass road construction abounded just as Americans were started owning homes and cars. There was a period of post-war prosperity, with millions of Americans having more spending money and free time than ever before. And, through this perfect storm, American families filled highways as road trips became central components of American life.

My grandfather fit the road tripper demographic perfectly. He grew up in poverty during the Great Depression. As a World War II pilot, his first time in a plane was during a training flight.

He caught the travel bug but insisted we drive everywhere. Splurging on a plane ticket was considered an extreme luxury.

The Benefits of a Road Trip

A road trip was a period of unchallenged time spent together as a family. Yes, my sister and I had our squabbles. But so many of our memories were formed in those back seats. We had no smartphones or devices to entertain us for the trip, outside of the 8-bit Gameboy, which occasionally came out.

We had actual conversations. We stopped and looked out at incredible landscapes and monuments.

We played road games, including doing scavenger hunts for letters on signs, pointing out things we saw on the road. There were markers that told us we were getting closer to Florida.

The first, was

South of The Border

(a massive fireworks market that is familiar to anyone who has been on I-95). Seeing this generally meant we were 25% of the way there. It was a reminder we were in for a long, long drive.

Then came the increasing number of Georgia license plates. Then came the Florida license plates. The trees on the side of the road began to less resemble the dense, deciduous forests of the north, and more the subtropical foliage of the south. Pines gave way to palm trees. The air took on a more humid, salty tang.

True excitement set in when billboards for Disney World and various theme parks began appearing — signaling that we only had a couple more hours to go. Rest stops began featuring citrus stands. The names of towns began sounding more like vacation destinations — Cocoa Beach, St. Augustine, Tampa — evoking images of us playing on the beach and running down boardwalks.

We could feel the anticipation.

How Things Changed

The

Airline Deregulation Act was passed in 1978

which began a decades long process of improving the industry, allowing for more competition, reduced barriers to entry, and eventually — improved prices (which continues to this day—at the slight expense of comfort).

Combine this with objectively higher gas prices for cars and it just doesn’t make sense for most families to take long road trips (the cheapest gas price I remember is 83 cents a gallon in the early 1990s, though I’m sure a few old timers reading this have me beat by huge strides). Cars have also

risen in price

even when discounting for inflation, making even the teenage road trip far less common.

And lastly, the rise of digital media has made the appeal of the more patience-requiring road trip less attractive. The desire for instant entertainment and dopamine hits has put the final nail in the coffin in this old tradition.

Road trips have been an unfortunate cultural casualty over the past two decades that may never return.

Where Do We Go From Here?

No, I’m not saying a 14-hour road trip with your parents is a mandatory experience for a fulfilled life.

But I would at least consider doing a road trip once. There are better ways of doing it than we did. You can break the trip up into smaller stints.

pen your eyes. See what is happening around you. Enjoy the sensory experiences they bring, and take time to talk to one another rather than stare at a screen. The biggest lesson for me, and I acknowledge that this is ultra-cliche, is that one should let the journey be just important as the destination. Be deliberate in how you experience things, fully immersing yourself. Don’t let every child succumb to the iPad babysitter.

Note the changes you see as you go from one place to another. Appreciate the novelty of the food and even the way people dress. Does the air feel different? Do the plants and animals all look unique?

Road trips offer a slower, stranger, more honest view of the country than any airport terminal ever will. It might be a dying practice, but it’s worth trying at least once.

Thrive by Sean Kernan is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

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