The researchers cite recent research on the nature of drug habits: they’re suggesting you’re addicted to your car. Perhaps more intriguing is recent work on the role that stress plays in shifting cognitive function from flexible parts of the brain (in the hippocampus) to procedural ones (in the striatum). In brain imaging studies, test participants placed under stress rely more on the striatum to determine their behavior — overwhelmed by life, we revert to habit.

That helps explain why choosing to travel by a certain mode in the morning often doesn’t feel like a choice at all. Getting ready to leave the house has always been a stressful time, confronted with an annoying commute and a new day at the office, and the stress only increases with the urge to get a head start on work on our phones. (Morning commutes are the clearest example, but the process applies to any trips secondary to their purpose.) In light of this overload, conserving brain power with regard to travel choice is actually the wise move.

Knowing that people don’t think twice about mode choice makes it all the more important to get other options right the first time.

via The Neuroscience of Car Dependence – Eric Jaffe – The Atlantic Cities.