PUBLIC POLICY TOWARD THE AUTOMOBILE: A COMPARATIVE LOOK AT JAPAN AND SWEDEN

This article compares two different national approaches to regulation and promotion of the automobile. It examines how the problem was perceived, what styles of intervention developed, and how implementation of seemingly standardized solutions differed. Japan tended to view the private automobile as a socially expensive luxury until quite recently. Some features of its policy response, e.g. low spending on roads, high motor vehicle taxes, flow from this outlook. Other aspects, such as the effective mass public safety campaigns, and the coordination between industrial and regulatory policies flow from Japan's social and cultural patterns. Sweden's policies are aimed at "civilizing" the car, not restricting it. They tended to develop in a relatively straightforward manner on the basis of an underlying social consensus, as contrasted with the adversarial approach common in the U.S.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/issn/09658564
• Corporate Authors:

  Pergamon Press, Incorporated

  Headington Hill Hall
  Oxford OX30BW,    
• Authors:
  • MCSHANE, M P
  • KOSHI, M
  • LUNDIN, O
• Publication Date: 1984-3

Media Info

• Features: Figures; References; Tables;
• Pagination: p. 97-109
• Serial:
  • Transportation Research Part A: Policy and Practice
  • Volume: 18A
  • Issue Number: 2
  • Publisher: Elsevier
  • ISSN: 0965-8564
  • Serial URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09658564

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Automobiles; Public policy; Regulations
• Geographic Terms: Japan; Sweden
• Subject Areas: Administration and Management; Highways; Law; Policy;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00393627
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-037 532
• Files: HSL, TRIS, USDOT
• Created Date: Apr 29 1985 12:00AM