Here are some notes from a fun book. And don't forget the famous Snell Report about how GM trashed public transport. Ival Illich once did some calculations about the car, showing that when you take the time that you spend paying for your car and assorted costs, you could get there as quickly on foot. Kay, Jane. 1997. Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America, And How We Can Take It Back (NY: Crown). 121: We spend 8 billion hours a year stuck in traffic. The costs of this time range from $43 billion, according to the Federal Highway Administration, to $168 billion in lost productivity estimated by other economists. 128: Engineer Stanley Hart broke down the costs for Pasadena, California. He found that for every dollar the motorist provides, the city spends $8 for fixing streets, policing them, sweeping them, installing traffic signals, and he like. Cars alone take 40 percent of the city's police calls, 15 per, cent of its fire department runs, and 16 percent of its paramedic services. 128: She cites a Manchester Guardian article on a Heidelberg study of total costs of cars. The state subsidy of the car his high. "This," they wrote, "is a State subsidy equivalent to giving each car user a free pass for the whole year for all public transport, a new bike every five years and 15,000 kilometer of first-class rail travel." 128: The carbon dioxide from the fossil fuels used in the world's cars causes 50 percent of global warming, and America's automobiles cause half of that. 129: David Aschauer says that spending on public transportation has twice the capacity to improve productivity as does highway spending. A billion dollars invested in mass transit produces seven thousand more U.S. jobs than does the same amount spent on road construction. A ten year $100 billion increase in such transit investment would enhance worker output five times as much as if made in roads. 128: Transportation consumes one-third of all U.S. energy used annually and two-thirds of its oil. -- Michael Perelman Economics Department California State University Chico, CA 95929 Tel. 916-898-5321 E-Mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
