Yes, Europeans have dropped the ball as well. They stopped increasing taxes in the early 90s and cars have steadily gone bigger and heavier ever since. MPG used to be a selling argument for cars back then; now it has totally disappeared from marketing, proof that it's not an issue that motivates people and thus that taxes are not high enough to bite.

(The existing amont of taxes does buffer the oil price rises)

There are some efforts to impose road pricing for trucks, which may go Europe wide soon; and much better policies on the renewable power side, but that has little impact on the oil market.

In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes