AUTOMOBILE DEPENDENCE & DENIAL: THE ELEPHANT IN THE BEDROOM: IMPACTS ON THE ECONOMY AND ENVIRONMENT

The United States has slipped car-by-car and road-by-road into a massive dependency on a transportation system which has become a public addiction. Until we kick this suicidal habit, the nation's efforts to escape dependency will be frustrated by public subsidies--the free use by motorists and the trucking industry of costly urban space and municipal services (which are far greater than generally understood). Cars and trucks have been identified as the most wasteful element of our consumer society. Our abuse of market forces compels Americans to depend almost entirely on 180 million automotive vehicles for passenger and freight transport. In turn this causes American vehicles to consume 4 billion barrels of oil annually--half the world's motor fuel and 20% of the world's oil production. This vicious cycle continues causing two-thirds of our trade imbalance plus the ecological damage done by our producing a billion tons of carbon dioxide a year which makes American cars and trucks critical actors in the environmental problems facing our planet. This book not only analyzes these often ignored intertwined problems, but also outlines practical ways in which we could turn this devastating system around and start to unravel the complicated grasp on our lives held by the internal combustion engine. Chapter titles are as follows: (1) Automobile Dependency; (2) Destruction and Rebuilding of Public Transportation; (3) The Cost of Space; (4) Local Government: Proposition 13 and the Tax Revolt; (5) Behavioral Patterns; (6) Safety and Commonsense; (7) Land Use: Developers, Politicians and Highway Engineers--Symbiotic Relationship; (8) Economics; (9) Environmental, Political and Social Effects; (10) Energy, Sustainability and Foreign Policy; (11) Regressivity and the Fuel Tax; (12) Utility and Disutility; (13) Naive Solutions--Disingenuous and Otherwise; (14) What is to be Done?; and (15) Epilogue.

• Availability:
  • Find a library where document is available. Order URL: http://worldcat.org/isbn/0932727646
• Supplemental Notes:
  • Also available in library hardcover (ISBN: 0-932727-65-4).
• Corporate Authors:

  New Paradigm Books

  P.O. Box 60008
  Pasadena, CA  United States  91116
• Authors:
  • Hart, S I
  • Spivak, A L
• Publication Date: 1993

Language

• English

Media Info

• Pagination: 192 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Behavior; Countermeasures; Drivers; Economic impacts; Economics; Energy consumption; Environmental impacts; Foreign; Fuels; Highway safety; Land use; Local government; Policy; Political factors; Public transit; Recommendations; Social factors; Taxation; Utility theory
• Uncontrolled Terms: Automobile dependence
• Geographic Terms: United States
• Old TRIS Terms: Foreign policy
• Subject Areas: Economics; Energy; Environment; Highways; Policy; Public Transportation; Research; Safety and Human Factors; Society; Vehicles and Equipment; I10: Economics and Administration; I96: Vehicle Operating Costs;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00638721
• Record Type: Publication
• ISBN: 0932727646
• Files: TRIS
• Created Date: Nov 1 1993 12:00AM