This new book about driving by Tom Vanderbuilt sounds interesting. See the review in the New York Times. According to the review, the author analyzed traffic congestion, safety and driving behaviour since the days of horses and carts and found that most of the problems we associate with today’s automobile-based society have been around a lot longer than that. Apparently horses used to kill slightly more pedestrians per week in New York than cars do today. I’d like to know what he found out about the pollution and energy efficiency of horses and carts. I’ve heard that cars are a big improvement in both areas.
However interesting, and perhaps for most people surprising, I don’t think any of this justifies our current dependence on automobiles, their pollution, inefficiency and fatality rates. We should be expecting major improvements over horses and carts and not comparing our current system with the transportation of more than a century ago.
Relevant today though are the observations about human nature. For example this quote from the book about traffic congestion:
The most effective, least popular solution — aside from the currently effective, unpopular solution of $5-a-gallon gasoline — is congestion pricing: charging extra to use roads during rush hours. For unknown reasons, Americans will accept a surcharge for peak-travel-time hotel rooms and airfares but not for roads.
Preferences and behaviour, it seems to me, are the main things in the way of progress. Has anyone read the book? I’d like to hear more.
