IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/bla/ajecsc/v66y2007i5p959-975.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Dangers of Automobile Travel: A Reconsideration

Author

Listed:
  • Roger Roots

Abstract

. America's reliance on automobile transportation has attracted the scorn of academics for decades. Automobiles, it is said, are dangerous to life and limb, environmentally unfriendly, and wasteful of space and resources. Moreover, say the critics, automobiles produce inefficient individualistic social behavior that balkanizes communities and shatters the otherwise cohesive nature of American life. This article examines the costs and benefits of U.S. automobile travel from a historic perspective. First, it compares the safety of automobile travel with the horse and steam‐powered travel that preceded it. It then briefly addresses the changes wrought by American automobiles in terms of their impact on American life, economics, social mobility, and ecology. It concludes that the dangers of automobile use are substantially lower than the dangers posed by early horse‐driven and steam‐driven transportation methods, especially in terms of fatalities per mile. It finds that on a per‐mile or per‐trip basis, automobile travel is safer than virtually any other means of travel used popularly in U.S. history, and that the other contributions of automobile transportation have been seriously overlooked by transportation scholars.

Suggested Citation

  • Roger Roots, 2007. "The Dangers of Automobile Travel: A Reconsideration," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(5), pages 959-975, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:5:p:959-975
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00549.x
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00549.x
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1111/j.1536-7150.2007.00549.x?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Gerhold,Dorian, 1993. "Road Transport before the Railways," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521419505.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael H Belzer & Stanley A Sedo, 2018. "Why do long distance truck drivers work extremely long hours?," The Economic and Labour Relations Review, , vol. 29(1), pages 59-79, March.
    2. Dorian Gerhold, 2014. "The development of stage coaching and the impact of turnpike roads, 1653–1840," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 67(3), pages 818-845, August.
    3. Bart Ballaux & Bruno Blondé, 2018. "Road transport productivity in the sixteenth‐century Low Countries: the case of Brabant, 1450–1650," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 71(3), pages 707-726, August.
    4. Bogart, Dan, 2005. "Turnpike trusts and the transportation revolution in 18th century England," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 42(4), pages 479-508, October.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:bla:ajecsc:v:66:y:2007:i:5:p:959-975. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0002-9246 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.