5/10/2014

The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century

Introduction History of the Automobile and Impact on Society Timeline Impact on Commerce Negative Impact Suburbia Automobile Simulation Suburban Growth Simulation

Negative Impact of the Automobile

The mass use of motor vehicles was bound to have some unforeseen and undesirable consequences, of which three can be singled out: traffic congestion, air pollution, and highway accidents. The approach to each of these problems illustrates a common tendency to blame the technology, rather than the way in which the technology has been used. City streets were congested long before the automobile existed, but the problem has been compounded enormously by the masses of motor vehicles that enter or leave cities at peak traffic hours. The constantly growing number of automobiles throughout the world adds to the difficulty of finding remedies for congestion. The heart of the problem is that few city street systems were originally designed for automobile traffic. Reliable estimates are that some two-thirds of the vehicles in central business districts are passing through and should have been routed on different highways around the city. Remedying this situation is difficult and expensive. It calls for modern highways to provide both ready access into downtown areas and ways to avoid them. Programs for this purpose encounter vigorous opposition, frequently justified, on the ground that building freeways in cities disrupts neighborhoods and destroys scenic or historic areas. The widespread use of automobiles for business travel has also led in many cities to a decline in public-transit systems, and the need to develop and use mass transit has been much discussed. Given the trend toward dispersal of people and businesses from urban areas, it seems doubtful that mass transit will appreciably diminish motor vehicle traffic. Still, in most cities, bus systems can provide the needed capacity for public transportation and are the most economical way of doing so. The building of "light-rail" and subways have helped dial with this problem.

Atmospheric pollution predates the automobile, but the concentration of many thousands of motor vehicles in large cities has given the problem a new dimension. Automobile exhausts commonly contribute half the http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/automobile/

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5/10/2014

The Impact of the Automobile on the 20th Century

Automobile exhausts commonly contribute half the

http://l3d.cs.colorado.edu/systems/agentsheets/New-Vista/automobile/

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