Mass Motorization and Mass Transit examines how the United States became the world's most thoroughly motorized nation and why mass transit has been more displaced in the United States than in any other advanced industrial nation. The book's historical and international perspective provides a uniquely effective framework for understanding both the intensity of U.S. motorization and the difficulties the country will face in moderating its demands on the world's oil supply and reducing the CO2 emissions generated by motor vehicles. No other book offers as comprehensive a history of mass transit, mass motorization, highway development, and suburbanization or provides as penetrating an analysis of the historical differences between motorization in the United States and that of other advanced industrial nations.
David W. Jones is a historian and policy analyst who has taught at Stanford University and the University of California at Berkeley, where he served as research manager at the Institute for Transportation Studies. Jones has been a staff consultant to regional transportation planning agencies in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Table of Contents
ContentsList of TablesList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsPart 1. U.S. Motorization in International Context1. Motorization in the United States and Other Industrial NationsPart 2. U.S. Motorization in Historical Context2. Transit's American History, 1880–19293. The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Pivotal Epoch in U.S. Transportation History4. World War II and Its Immediate Aftermath: The End of the Streetcar Era and the Beginnings of the Freeway Era5. The Interstate and Pervasive Motorization, 1956–806. Transit's Conversion to Public Ownership7. U.S. Motorization since the OPEC Embargo8. The Competitive Difficulties of the U.S. AutomakersPart 3. Evolving Challenges in an Evolved Environment9. The Changing Valance of U.S. Motorization10. The Road to Sustainable Motorization11. Motorization and Sustainability: History and ProspectGlossaryNotesBibliographyIndex
