Just to restate the obvious ... Swedes do NOT need to drive as far or as much as those in the US HAVE TO.

In the US the distances between cities and small towns are vast in most of the country ... and in addition our cities developed as low density as a SPREAD OUT mass, not compact (except for NYC and Philadelphia).

A factor that has continued that SPREAD OUT dynamic of our cities over the last 50 years is that the COMPACT parts of our cities are generally very very crime ridden due to the fact that those most prone to crime are compacted into that compact area. At least in the US MOST people do NOT want to live cheek to jowl with crime occurring within a block of where they live or work so they want to LIVE OUT from the dense core.

(if you think living cheek to jowl next to daily crime is appealing I am sure there are now areas of Sweden in it's biggest cities that you can move into - ie: some immigrant areas in those cities)

I won't disagree that Americans have had a love affair with HUGE vehicles, that has been a long standing dynamic of Americans since the dawn of the auto age in the US in the 1900-1905 time frame. Those days may finally be ending with the high gas prices if they remain high.