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Ode
to the Auto
Motor vehicle injuries.... are the leading cause of death among children at every age after their first birthday.
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Ode
to the Auto
Motor vehicle injuries.... are the leading cause of death among children at every age after their first birthday.
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Agriculture | “Between 1 – 1.5 million acres of U.S. farmland are consumed by suburban sprawl every year." |
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Air
Pollution – |
"It has been calculated that 70% of Carbon Dioxide, 45% of Nitrogen Oxides, and 34% of the Hydrocarbon pollution
in the United States can be traced directly to automobile exhausts.”
The Columbia Encyclopedia
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| Biology – |
“Most of the body during driving remains still and passive, not like walking where the entire body exerts effort and
remains continuously active, tension tends to build up where the body is physically restricted and constricted."
Dealing with stress and pressure in the vehicle,
Taxonomy of Driving Behavior: Affective, Cognitive, Sensorimotor
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Cost – |
“The cost to society of automobile death and injury, is conservatively estimated at $17 billion annually. The vehicle
damage adds at least another $5 billion yearly.
Princeton University |
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Drunk Driving – |
4,933 Americans are killed and 500,000 are injured by drunk drivers every year.
Mothers Against Drunk Driving
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| Economics |
Japan spends 9% of it’s Gross National Product for transportation while the United States spends 15-18%.
Are
Bicycles making Japan more competitive?
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The entire capacity of the GWB could be filled with a single train line. |
Engineering | It takes three lanes of a given size to move 40,000 people across a bridge in one hour by using automated trains, four to move them on buses, twelve to move them in their cars, and only two lanes for them to pedal across on bicycles. |
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Finance – |
The average New York City resident will spend-
$300 to commute by bicycle for one year $1090 on subway fare for one year $1600 for 200 ten mile trips by taxi $7000 per year to own and operate an automobile Transportation
Alternatives
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New York Times |
Government |
The Federal Government subsidies for the oil industry include:
-$5.7 billion: the Strategic Petroleum Reserve -$784 million: the Percentage Depletion Allowance -$769 million: the Nonconventional Fuel Production Credit -$200 million: the Enhanced Oil Recovery Credit -$97 million: the Department of Interiors Oil Resources Management Programs |
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Global Warming – |
According to the latest findings of the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, in order to
stabilize greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, global emissions must be reduced to at least 60 percent below 1990 levels.
New York Times
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Health – |
The University of California did postmortem autopsies on one hundred otherwise healthy young accident victims, they found
that 80 percent had ‘serious lung abnormalities’ and 27 percent had ‘severe lesions on their lungs.’
Asphalt Nation
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Italian researchers have found that traffic pollution reduces sperm quality in young and middle-aged men. A study of 170
men, half of whom were tollbooth workers, showed that those with high exposure to exhaust gasses had "poorer sperm quality.
"Traffic 'damages' male fertility"
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Income – | the average American devotes 16-20% of his/her income to automobile transportation. |
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| Justice – |
Mere months after Honda advertised its air-cleansing LEV (Low Emissions Vehicle) Accord, with a "Mr. Clean" muscleman declaring "you are what you drive," the Justice Department and the EPA fined the company $l2.6 million for falsifying test results on said clean air. Asphalt Nation
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Land
Management |
New homes on virgin soil produce a net cost [to taxpayers] of $700-2200 per dwelling at 5 units per acre. |
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Law – |
Between 200-2002, 580 pedestrians were killed in fatal auto [crashes] in New York City. During that span, only 80 people
were indicted for criminally negligent homicide or vehicular manslaughter - the laws used most to punish killer drivers.
'State Spares the Rod for those who Kill with Cars'
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Military – |
“Shell [petroleum] operations still impossible unless ruthless military operations are undertaken for smooth economic
activities to commence."
Nigerian military officer Paul Okuntimo
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New York |
New York State motorists pay $4.5 billion annually in users fees…..All levels of government….spend $6.9 billion
annually on road construction and maintenance, driver and vehicle licensing, road-related police and fire services and
other highway expenditures in New York State."
This results in a driver subsidy of $2.4 billion a year. Komanoff Energy Associates Consulting
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Obesity – |
The heads of three royal medical colleges issued an
unprecedented warning on February 11 about the rising epidemic of obesity.
Obesity rates have ….quadrupled for men in the past 20 years.
"We have got to remove counter-productive messages, like the assumption it is unsafe to go out of the house and play," said Dr. Penny Gibson of the Royal College of Pediatrics. "Children need designated play areas, streets without cars and the opportunity to exercise and play at school.” The Royal College of Physicians |
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Oil – |
Richard Cheney’s oil company, Halliburton Oil, secretly rebuilt
the oil fields in Iraq after they were bombed in 1991. They and five other U.S. companies have been buying Iraqi oil at
low prices ever since, making Iraq America’s 2nd largest Middle Eastern oil supplier.
London Financial Times 2000 |
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| Oppression | In a legal filing with an investigating magistrate, lawyers representing a group of Burmese workers have accused French energy giant TotalFinaElf of holding workers against their will and imposing forced labor upon workers. | |
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Psychology |
Driving is a regulated activity, cars and trucks have powerful
engines capable of going faster than what is allowed – ever. Drivers are punished for violating these regulations. This
imposition arouses a rebellious streak in many people.
Dealing with stress and pressure in the vehicle,
Taxonomy of Driving Behavior: Affective, Cognitive, Sensorimotor
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Pedestrians – |
In 1997, 5307 pedestrians were unnecessarily killed in automobile 'accidents.'
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Quality of
Life – |
Many communities have no sidewalks, and no place to walk to, which is bad for public safety as well as for our nation's
physical health. It has become impossible in such settings for neighbors to greet one another on the street, or for kids to
walk to their own nearby schools. A gallon of gas can be used up just driving to get a gallon of milk. All of these add up to
more stress for already overstressed family lives.
former Vice President Al Gore
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Religion – |
Reckless driving violates the Sixth Commadment ("Thou shall not kill") because it risks lives, Bishop Nikol Joseph Cauchi
said in an essay in The Times of Malta.
NY Times October 28th 2002 |
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Road Rage |
The symbolic portrayal of the car has tied it to individual
freedom, promoting a mental attitude of defensiveness and territoriality. The result is that motorists feel invaded while
they drive, lulling them into a hostile mental state, even to warlike postures and aggressive reactions.
Dealing with stress and pressure in the vehicle,
Taxonomy of Driving Behavior: Affective, Cognitive, Sensorimotor
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| Salt – |
The most common pollutant to soil and water near the roadside is sodium chloride. It is used as a de-icer to melt
snow on roads, highways and sidewalks. Sodium ions are carried by the plant into growing sections and can accumulate
to toxic levels.
Department of Defense Urban Forestry Manual |
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SUVs – |
According to the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, while sport utility vehicles account for just
over 1/3 of all registered U.S. passenger vehicles, collisions involving SUVs account for over half of all fatalities in light
vehicle crashes.
Is It Wise to Purchase an
SUV?
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Terrorism – |
Congressional leaders criticized the Bush administration for not being more aggressive in pressing the Saudi government,
particularly since 15 of the 19 hijackers in the Sept. 11 attacks were Saudi citizens…..”It has been a longstanding policy of
the United States government over several decades that if the kingdom [Saudi Arabia] helps us with oil and helps us with the
Middle East we won’t ask them about their internal issues." said William Wechsler
Saudi Arabia is Called Slow in Helping Stem the Flow of Cash to Militants
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Theft – |
The effectiveness of many [antitheft and tracking systems] is questionable. The sensitivity of audible alarms to touch or
movement, for example, provokes a "boy who cried wolf" reaction. When a car alarm goes off, people tend not to react
because the alarms activate so frequently for reasons other than actual theft. HLDI studies show no overall reduction in
theft losses for vehicles with such alarms.
Insurance Industry Analyses and Prevention of Motor Vehicle Theft
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Traffic – |
"The average rush-hour driver wasted more than two full days-about 51 hours - sitting in traffic in 2001. The cost of this
congestion is approximately $69.5 billion in wasted time and gas.
Texas Transportation Institute
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Urban
Planning – |
30-50% of urban American land is buried beneath a layer of asphalt.
'Getting
There'
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VOCs – |
High levels of VOC (volotile organic compounds) of up to 64,000 micrograms per cubic meter have been found to last
2-3 months after automobile manufacture. Humans exposed to less than half of this dosage have reported ill effects within minutes.
Comonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation |
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Water – |
The National Research Council has reported that about 29 million gallons of oil enter the oceans around North America
each year as a result of human activities. Of that, the largest share, 15.6 million gallons, comes from rivers and runoff,
largely from such things as street runoff, industrial waste, municipal wastewater and wastewater from refineries. In
addition, 1.6 million gallons of the pollution comes from recreational vessels, where two-stroke engines that mix oil a
and gas are often used in personal watercraft and as outboard engines.
National Research Council
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ZZZZ – | 20% of all road accidents are attributed to the driver falling asleep at the wheel (higher than drunk driving). |
