The Car Is About To Transform Society For The Second Time

The car is about to transform society – for the second time
Matthew DeBord 2016
Since the start of the twentieth century, the role of the car has become highly important though
controversial. It is used throughout the world and has become the most popular mode of transport
in the more developed countries. In developing countries, the effects of the car on society are not
as visible, however they are significant. The development of the car built upon the transport sector
first started by railways. This has introduced sweeping changes in employment patterns, social
interactions, infrastructure and the distribution of goods. Nonetheless the positive effects on access
to remote places and mobility, comfort provided by the automobile, allowing people to
geographically increase their social and economic interactions, the negative effects of the car on
everyday life are not negligible.
History
In the early 20th century, cars entered mass production. The United States produced 45,000 cars in
1907, but 28 years later, in 1935, that had increased nearly 90-fold to 3,971,000.[8] The increase in
production required a large new workforce. In 1913, 13,623 people worked for the Ford Motor
Company, and by 1915 that had increased to 18,028.[8][better source needed] Bradford DeLong,
author of The Roaring Twenties, noted that "Many more lined up outside the Ford factory for
chances to work at what appeared to them to be, and (for those who did not mind the pace of
the assembly line much) was an incredible boondoggle of a job.[8]" There was a surge in the need
for workers at big, new high-technology companies such as Ford. Employment increased greatly.
Sacrifices to the Modern Moloch, a 1922 cartoon published in The New York Times, criticizing the
apparent acceptance by society of increasing automobile-related fatalities.
When the motor age arrived in western countries at the beginning of the 20th century, many
conservative intellectuals opposed the increase in motor vehicles on the roads. Those increases
removed space for pedestrians, made walking more dangerous, and brought a tremendous increase
in pedestrian deaths caused by car collisions.
W.S. Gilbert, the famous British librettist, wrote to The Times on 3 June 1903:
“
Sir,–I am delighted with the suggestion made by your spirited correspondent Sir
Ralph Payne-Gallwey that all pedestrians shall be legally empowered to discharge
shotguns (the size of the shot to be humanely restricted to No. 8 or No. 9) At all
motorists who may appear to them to be driven to the common danger. Not only
would this provide a speedy and effective punishment for the erring motorist, but
it would also supply the dwellers on popular high roads with a comfortable
increase of income. "Motor shooting for a single gun" would appeal strongly to
the sporting instincts of the true Briton, and would provide ample compensation
to the proprietors of eligible road-side properties for the intolerable annoyance
caused by the enemies of mankind.
”
Ten years later, Alfred Godley wrote a more elaborate protest, "The Motor Bus", a poem which
cleverly combined a lesson in Latin grammar with an expression of distaste for the new form of
motor transport.
Access and convenience
Convenience store in a rest area serving New Jersey Turnpike users.

Worldwide, the car has allowed easier access to remote places. However, average journey times to
regularly visited places have increased in large cities, as a result of widespread car adoption
and urban sprawl, as well as the decommissioning of older tram systems. This is due to traffic
congestion and the increased distances between home and work brought about by urban sprawl.[9]
Examples of car access issues in underdeveloped countries are for example the paving of Mexican
Federal Highway 1 through Baja California, completing the connection of Cabo San
Lucas to California. In Madagascar, another example, about 30% of the population does not have
access to reliable all-weather roads[10] and in China, 184 towns and 54,000 villages have no motor
road (or roads at all).[11]
Certain developments in retail are partially due to car use, such as supermarket growth, drive-
thru fast food purchasing and Gasoline station grocery shopping.
Economic changes
Employment and consumption habits
High signs attract the attention of drivers on the adjacent freeway.
A street without a sidewalk, where the pedestrian must walk on the road pavement.
The development of the car has contributed to changes in employment distribution, shopping
patterns, social interactions, manufacturing priorities and city planning; increasing use of cars has
reduced the roles of walking, horses and railroads.[12]
In addition to money for roadway construction, car use was also encouraged in many places through
new zoning laws that required any new business to construct a certain amount of parking based on
the size and type of facility. The effect was to create many free parking spaces, and business places
further back from the road. In aggregate, this led to less dense settlements and made a carless
lifestyle increasingly unattractive.
Many new shopping centers and suburbs did not install sidewalks,[13] making pedestrian access
dangerous. This had the effect of encouraging people to drive, even for short trips that might have
been walkable, thus increasing and solidifying American auto-dependency.[14] As a result of this
change, employment opportunities for people who were not wealthy enough to own a car and for
people who could not drive, due to age or physical disabilities, became severely limited.[15]
Economic growth
Motorisation rate[16] vs. Economic growth[17] in European countries whose population is greater
than 1 million inhabitants. Source: Eurostat.
In countries with major car manufacturers, such as USA or Germany, a certain degree of car
dependency might be positive for the economy at a macroeconomic level, since it demands
automobile production, therefore resulting also in job demand and tax revenue. These economic
conditions were particularly valid during the 1920s when the number of automobiles, worldwide,
had a substantial annual average increase, but also during the post–World War II economic
expansion. Notwithstanding the growing effects provided by the automobile on the economy of
some countries, several other auto-dependent countries, deprived from automobile industry and
oil resources, have to allocate substantial economic assets, to satisfy its mobility policies, affecting
then their commercial balance. This situation is broadly valid in the majority of the European
countries, since, disregarding some few exceptions such as Norway, Europe is largely dependent on
imports for its fossil fuels. Furthermore, just few European countries, such as Germany or France,
have car manufacturers productive enough to satisfy their country's internal demand for cars. All
these factors related to high motorisation rates, affect therefore the economic growth in the
majority of the European countries.[16][17] Most African countries are also dependent on imported
cars, usually second-hand from Western countries, some of those vehicles being in a very worn-out
state. Finally, even countries with oil resources could be deprived of refineries, such as Nigeria which
has to import fuel even though it is a major oil producer.
Employment in the automotive industry

As of 2009 the U.S. motor vehicle manufacturing industry employed 880,000 workers, or
approximately 6.6% of the U.S. manufacturing workforce.[18]
References
1. ^ Bardou, J.-P.; Chanaron, J.-J.; Fridenson, P.; Laux, J. M. (30 November 1982). "THE
AUTOMOBILE REVOLUTION--THE IMPACT OF AN INDUSTRY". Revue d'Economie Politique.
2. ^ Davies, Stephen (1989). "Reckless Walking Must Be Discouraged". Urban History
Review. 18 (2): 123–138. doi:10.7202/1017751ar. ISSN 0703-0428.
3. ^ Kasarda, John D.; Janowitz, Morris (1974). "Community Attachment in Mass
Society". American Sociological Review. 39 (3): 328–
339. doi:10.2307/2094293. JSTOR 2094293.
4. ^ Moss, Stephen (2015-04-28). "End of the car age: how cities are outgrowing the
automobile". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2017-12-01.
5. ^ Handy, Susan L.; Clifton, Kelly J. (2001-11-01). "Local shopping as a strategy for reducing
automobile travel". Transportation. 28 (4): 317–
346. doi:10.1023/A:1011850618753. ISSN 0049-4488.
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c M. Maibach; et al. (February 2008). "Handbook on estimation of external costs
in the transport sector" (PDF). Delft. p. 332. Retrieved 2015-09-20.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c Holtz Kay, Jane (1998). Asphalt Nation: how the automobile took over
America, and how we can take it back. University of California Press. ISBN 0-520-21620-2.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c DeLong, Bradford. "The Roaring Twenties." Slouching Towards Utopia? The
Economic History of the Twentieth Century". Retrieved 20 May 2014.
9. ^ Gilbert, Alan (1996). The mega-city in Latin America. United Nations University
Press. ISBN 978-92-808-0935-0.
10. ^ "Madagascar: The Development of a National Rural Transport Program". World Bank. 2010-
11-23. Retrieved 2011-01-09.
11. ^ "China Through a Lens: Rural Road Construction Speeded Up". China.org.cn. 2003-05-16.
Retrieved 2011-01-09.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Jackson, Kenneth T. (1985), Crabgrass Frontier: The Suburbanization of
the United States, New York: Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-504983-7
13. ^ Smetanka, Mary Jane (August 18, 2007). "Sidewalks? Too pedestrian for some". Star
Tribune. Archived from the original on March 4, 2014. Retrieved August 3, 2019.
14. ^ Jakle, John A.; Sculle, Keith A. (2004). Lots of Parking: Land Use in a Car Culture. University
of Virginia Press. ISBN 0-8139-2266-6.
15. ^ Wilson, William Julius (2011). When Work Disappears: The World of the New Urban Poor.
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group. ISBN 978-0-679-72417-9.
16. ^ Jump up to:a b Motorisation Rate; Cars per 1000 inhabitants in Europe, Eurostat
17. ^ Jump up to:a b Economic Growth, Real GDP growth rate - volume, Percentage change on
previous year, Eurostat.
18. ^ Michaela, Platzer; Glennon, Harrison. "The U.S. Automotive Industry: National and State
Trends in Manufacturing Employment". Congressional Research Service.

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The car is about to transform society – for the second time

Matthew DeBord 2016

Access and convenience

Convenience store in a rest area serving New Jersey Turnpike users.

High signs attract the attention of drivers on the adjacent freeway.

Employment in the automotive industry

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