Customer Reviews

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

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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.

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.