Face it, the price of crude oil is the same there as it is here. I doubt the cost of refinement is substancially higher in Europe than it is in America. The main price difference is in the amount of taxes your governments impose on gasoline. It's interesting to note that the price of diesel and jet fuel in Europe is far closer to what we pay. Only gasoline is taxed so heavily.

Mass transit is great when the population density is high enough to make it economically viable. That works for much of Europe as well as up in the heavily populated northeastern corridor of the US. Keep in mind that most European countries are no bigger than small or medium sized US states with far higher populations. For much of the rest of America, we're too spread out to ride bikes or to have economically viable mass transit.

As a personal example, I live 18 miles (almost 29 kilometers) from my job. If I depended on the small amount of mass transit available, it'd take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours to commute each way to work. In my private car, it takes about 30 minutes each way. I'll pay for the gas. Fortunately, my car gets pretty good mileage (about 28 mpg in town) compared to many, so the cost isn't nearly as bad as it is for some of my coworkers. Based on my driving patterns, a hybrid would be a good option as long as they don't jack up the price to the point where it isn't economically viable.