The recent yellow vest protests in France are interesting for your focus. I believe most of it is driven not by the not-so-high petrol price, but by combination of two facts in France : Real estate is very expensive in cities, more and more disconnected from the average income; jobs are mostly in these places. In short, the tendency is that most French people can't afford to live where they work, or don't want to live in a smaller flat, hence their commute time.