I wonder if subsidised petrol also adds to it. It&#x27;d be a rare Australian (in my experience) who attempted to regularly drive between major cities (excluding Canberra) - they&#x27;d just fly.<p>I also get the impression that air transport in most of the rest of the world is much much more reasonable. AirAsia has made most of Asia pretty accessible, there are a gazillion competing low-cost airlines in Europe, and Australian air travel seems to be cheap enough that I have friends who city hop at weekends without much effort.<p>Of the four continents I&#x27;ve lived for more than a year on, North America and Africa see people taking heroic car journeys, Europe and (South East) Asia much less so.<p>Finally there seems to be a real class divide on public transport. Middle-class Europeans and Asians will jump on a coach, where I don&#x27;t think any of the Americans I know have every been on a Greyhound bus...