Driving Forces: The Automobile, Its Enemies, and the Politics of Mobility [Paperback]

James A. Dunn (Author), James A. Dunn Jr (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0815719639 | ISBN-13: 978-0815719632 | Publication Date: October 1998

To its critics, the automobile is a voracious consumer of irreplaceable energy resources, a leading polluter of the environment, and a destroyer of cohesive communities. The most outspoken opponents call for greater regulations and restrictions to ultimately replace the automobile as the country's primary means of transportation. But their proposals all ignore one simple fact: Americans love their cars! Millions of citizens have made the automobile the most successful method of mass transportation ever developed, and they are not about to give up the personal mobility it offers. This book presents the controversial view that, for the vast majority of Americans, the automobile is not the problem, but the solution to transportation needs. While acknowledging the automobile's significant drawbacks, the author refutes much of the shrill rhetoric and doomsday predictions of its opponents. He takes a skeptical look at the major policy initiatives to tax, regulate, and provide alternatives to the automobile, pointing out that any policies designed to remove Americans from their cars without offering them a superior means of mobility are "worse than useless" and doomed to failure. The book offers suggestions and guidelines for politically realistic initiatives that preserve the benefits of the automobile while building public support for policies that will reduce its negative effects on energy use and the environment. James A. Dunn Jr. is professor of political science and public administration at Rutgers University-Camden. He was a member of the U.S. research team on MIT's International Automobile Program and he served as chairman of the South Jersey Transit Advisory Committee. He is the author of Miles To Go: European and American Transportation Policies (MIT, 1981).

Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Brookings Institution Press (October 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0815719639
• ISBN-13: 978-0815719632
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.5 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,034,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

59 of 74 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Well written, but logically flawed., December 1, 1999

By 

David Bleicher (State College, Pennsylvania) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Driving Forces: The Automobile, Its Enemies, and the Politics of Mobility (Paperback)

Driving Forces is a well written, highly persuasive book which extols the social and economic benefits that have been brought about in the United States as a result of mass car ownership and suburbanisation. However, Dunn's arguments are based on a number of highly questionable assumptions:

1. An automobile based transportation system is inherently superior to a mixed transportation system that utilizes cars, transit, walking and cylcing.

2. The suburban lifestyle enjoyed by most Americans is inherently superior to the urban lifestyle found in European towns and cities.

3. There is a highly organized "vanguard" of anti-auto campaigners who are determined to reduce Americans' mobility and destroy America's economy.

4. Global warming, and other environmental effects, are imaginary, and were invented by the "vanguard".

5. Current patterns of land development and transportation can be sustained indefinitely with only minor modifications, such as improving the fuel efficiency of cars, and deregulating taxis.

In addition to these faulty arguments, Dunn either downplays or totally ignores other negative effects such as loss of farmland, urban decay, and reduced mobility of the carless.

After reading Driving Forces, I was left wondering which automobile manufacturer paid Dunn to write it.

7 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent review of the politics of transportation, July 9, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Driving Forces: The Automobile, Its Enemies, and the Politics of Mobility (Paperback)

In spite of the someout sensationalist title, this book provides a balanced overview of the recent history of transportation politics and policy in the United States. Anyone wanting to understand the complex array of forces at work shaping our current transportation policy regime would do well to read this book. Dunn does a particularly excellent job detailing how the anti-auto forces have been able to capture the political high road in many of the debates.