Perhaps in good weather when there’s no traffic. Realistically, it’s more like an hour. More importantly, Carleton has, at least on paper, a somewhat restrictive car policy [1]. Hence, many students take the bus into the Twin Cities (which definitely takes more than an hour).
Also, Carleton is rather left-wing. Actually, it’s comparable to Oberlin, Reed, Grinnell and Macalester. From CIRP incoming student surveys for Carleton [2014] and Reed [2010] [2]:
First year students who identify as ___ Carleton% Reed%
Far left: 18% (Carleton), 19% (Reed)
Liberal: 58%, 62%
Middle of the road: 20%, 16%
Conservative: 4%, 3%
Far right: under 1%, 0%
There certainly is diversity of opinion on campus, but the Overton window at Carleton ranges roughly from: Hillary (right) to Bernie (center) to people who think both Hillary and Bernie are not liberal enough (left). The sole Republican group on campus shut down because there was not enough interest[3]. St Olaf is more moderate than Carleton, but still fairly liberal.
To the OP, I would suggest looking at Claremont McKenna.
[1] It used to be VERY restrictive when I was there. I understand it’s become more lax in recent decades. Nevertheless, there’s a limit on the number of parking permits issued, and you cannot have a car without a permit.
https://apps.carleton.edu/handbook/travel/?a=student&policy_id=871670
Why the policy in the first place?
One reason is the college wanted to be good neighbors. Residents of Northfield don’t want to be inundated with student vehicular traffic and compete with them for limited parking spaces in such a small town.
Historically, though, there was a second reason (which ties in with the political thing): students felt that banning cars would be more egalitarian and foster a greater sense of community. They didn’t want rich students (i.e., the ones with the cars) to be the only ones able to go off campus on nights and weekends; they wanted a residential college, not a commuter campus. Today more students have off-campus jobs or internships, so the car policy was relaxed.
[2] Sources:
https://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/?story_id=1482546&issue_id=1482544
http://www.reed.edu/ir/assets/images/graphs/Reed2010CIRP.pdf
[3] https://apps.carleton.edu/carletonian/?story_id=1644953&issue_id=1644949
