Synopses & Reviews
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.
Review
"Jones ultimately attributes mass motorization to consumer preferences--for single-
family home ownership, suburban living, and sun belt metropolises where low-density development and dispersed employment made automobiles essential." --Thomas G. Andrews, University of Colorado Denver, JOURNAL OF AMERICAN HISTORY, Vol. 96.2 September 2009
Review
"David Jones does a great job of dispelling myths that many of us hold about the advent of the automobile and the decline of public transit in the United States." --publictransport.about.com Indiana University Press Indiana University Press
Review
"Jones documents well the politics of postwar efforts by big city mayors to obtain federal aid for rail systems.... He provides good evidence for transit's very limited potential to solve the pressing problems of congestion, energy use, and global warming.... Highly recommended." --Choice
Review
"This is a valuable and topical book which brings transport issues to the fore in American domestic and foreign policy." --Margaret Walsh, University of Nottingham, Journal of American Studies, 43 2009
Review
"In this sweeping history of urban transportation modernization and post-modernization in the United States, David Jones debunks popular explanations for the decline of mass transit and the rise of mass motorization. ... offers a solid foundation for debating alternative theses that seek to account for technological change." --Gregory Thompson, Technology and Culture, Vol. 50 July 2009
Synopsis
A fresh perspective on the decline and future of mass transit
About the Author
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
Contents<\>List of Tables
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Part 1. U.S. Motorization in International Context
1. Motorization in the United States and Other Industrial Nations
Part 2. U.S. Motorization in Historical Context
2. Transit's American History, 188019293. The Great Depression and the New Deal: A Pivotal Epoch in U.S. Transportation History
4. World War II and Its Immediate Aftermath: The End of the Streetcar Era and the Beginnings of the Freeway Era
5. The Interstate and Pervasive Motorization, 1956806. Transit's Conversion to Public Ownership
7. U.S. Motorization since the OPEC Embargo
8. The Competitive Difficulties of the U.S. Automakers
Part 3. Evolving Challenges in an Evolved Environment
9. The Changing Valance of U.S. Motorization
10. The Road to Sustainable Motorization
11. Motorization and Sustainability: History and Prospect
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index