The automobile has made a dramatic impact on many different aspects of American society. The automobile industry has aided in the creation of malls and other large shopping areas, theme parks, hotels and motels, highways, and assorted drive through businesses such as banking and fast food. The vast popularization of cars and other automobiles has also impacted society negatively. Car accidents and other auto related death has increased as well as noise pollution, and the formation of a larger carbon footprint. The popularization of cars has also lead to a greater dependence on fossil fuels and other natural gases (Cohen). The creation of the first automobile had a severe impact on the lives of ordinary people. The automobile created a new lifestyle …show more content…
Everything about the American culture has evolved from the transportation industry. Although automobiles may be linked to a rise in air pollution and other harmful effects to the environment, the consumer demand for cars continues to rise (Armi). The auto business in the US is a rather profitable market. Millions of dollars fund research to establish which aspects it is of a car that consumers care the most about. These factors, such as: size, color, design, and gas milage all impact the consumers willingness to purchase a car …show more content…
Before cars, people traveled by carriages, horses, streetcars and bicycles. These methods of transportation were not as effective as the car, so transportation over long distances was not entirely facilitated. This is why the innovation of the automobile was so important to the creation of suburbs and other areas of living outside the city. Transportation was facilitated and citizens could finally afford to leave the dirty and crowded city and commute from their quiet country homes outside of the mess of people and disease. Since World War II, cars have entirely reshaped cities and their near suburbs dramatically (Chafe). The automobile industry, mainly due to cars, has not only replaced the rail service that existed prior, and a great deal of the pedestrian popularity, but this industry has also strongly influenced the growth of inner city areas lacking in any type of transportation service. In the past, rails connected urban cores directly with their outskirts and suburbs before the invention of automobiles. In the past, city streets had generally followed the patterns of the streetcars as well as transportation routes and roads before them, however, it was just a matter of time before cars outgrew the capacity of the old routes. A journalist from
In this year Henry Ford created the first affordable, combustion engine car called the Model-T. The creation of the Model-T changed the lives of every American. Vehicles were looked at as a way of freedom and excitement. Soon after, every household in America had a car. The demand for vehicles sparked a whole new industry, creating jobs, more revenues and improving the American economy in every way. With so many vehicles on the roads, roads needed to become bigger and better which spawned a nation wide road construction. This also created more jobs and strengthened the economy even further. (Inventions: Car)
...hing, more prominent than the effect on the farms. The automobile has radically changed city life by accelerating the outward expansion of population into the suburbs. The suburban trend is emphasized by the fact that highway transportation encourages business and industry to move outward to sites where land is cheaper, where access by car and truck is easier than in crowded cities, and where space is available for their one or two story structures. Better roads were constructed, which further increased travel throughout the nation. As with other automobile-related phenomena, the trend is most noticeable in the United States but is rapidly appearing elsewhere in the world.
“Automobile In American Life and Society.” Automobile In American Life and Society. N.P., n.d. Web. 16 Feb. 2014.
Andrew Simms, a policy director and head of the Climate Change Program for the New Economics Foundation in England, presents his argument about the impact SUV’s have on our roadways, and the air we breathe. “Would You Buy a Car That Looked like This? “. The title alone gives great insight on what the article is going to be about, (vehicles). “They clog the streets and litter the pages of weekend colour *supplements. Sport utility vehicles or SUV’s have become badges of middle class aspiration” (Simms 542). Simms opening statement not only gives his opinion on how SUV’s are the new trend, but he also paints a picture of what we see every day driving down our roadways. Simms also compares the tobacco industry’s gap between image and reality to that of SUV’s; stating that the cause and consequences of climate change resemble smoking and cancer. Simms comparison between SUV’s and cigarettes shows how dangerous he believes SUV’s are.
In Christopher Wells’ book Car Country: An Environmental History he starts by speaking about his experience over the years with automobiles. He describes how happy he was to own his first automobile. Mr. Wells goes into detail about the inconveniences of driving in towns where everything is fairly accessible, and the necessity of an automobile in major cities. Although Mr. Wells enjoyed his first car, his local surrounding helped shape the attitude he has towards motor vehicles to this day. Mr. Wells also argued that car dependence in America is connected with the landscape. Wells rejects the notion that America ‘s automobile landscape emerged as a byproduct of consumer’s desires for motor vehicles or as the result of conspiracies to eliminate
No technology has had a greater impact on the American life than the automobile. Where we live, how we work, and how we travel, what our landscape looks like, our environment have all been shaped by the automobile. There isn’t a better place that demonstrates the social, geographic, and political changes brought by the industry than Detroit, the motor city. Detroit was situated to be a center of the American automobile industry. All of the material that was needed to build was easily accessible to the city by the great lakes waterways and by rail. The automobile industry helped people with their everyday lives and changed the way people saw the world.
In the July 1997 issue of Commentary, James Q. Wilson challenges the consensus among academia’s finest regarding the automobile in his bold article, Cars and Their Enemies. Directed towards the general public, his article discredits many of the supposed negatives of the automobile raised by experts, proves that the personal car is thriving and will continue to thrive because it meets individual preference over other means of transportation, as well as presents solutions to the social costs of cars. Wilson emphasizes that no matter what is said and done in eliminating the social costs of the automobile, experts are not going to stop campaigning against it.
The automobile was one of the biggest and most important features of the 1920’s. Automobiles not only were a symbol of social status, but also had become so popular that nearly every family owned a car. Automobile production and sales fueled the economy and created an item that remains the centerpiece of daily life. Just as computers are now a part of daily life, the automobile did the same thing in the 1920’s.
Automobiles play a major role in today's society. Almost every American owns at least one motorized transportation vehicle. Some say they make our lives better by reaching places faster than before. Others say they are a harmful to the environment. Have they made our society better or worse? They may be fast, but do we as humans want our environment to suffer because of time. Face it, cars pollute. And they release destructive chemicals into the air. Air pollution can threaten the health of many subjects in the environment including human beings.
In the twentieth century, the introduction of the motor vehicle in the United States became not only noteworthy, but also vital in the development of modern American civilization. This technologically complex machine led citizens to vast future dependence on the invention. While mobility was suddenly not limited to alternative, more convoluted options such as railroad stations or bicycles, yet copiously amplified to aid convenience and expanded leisure opportunities. From auto-racing to redesigning infrastructure, motor vehicles allowed progression, digression, and essentially uttermost change to the lifestyles of the American people. This radical idea of the automobile permeated throughout America with most, if not all, credit renowned to Henry Ford.
Car culture had caused some serious headaches for city planners in the 1950s. They had not anticipated the added traffic when building cities and were forced to adjust their plans with mixed results. There were many side effects to the restructuring of the city, and most were not good for the city center. Business and customers were no longer funneled into the now crowded city center in favor of the more spacious and convenient periphery. Community life as well as business in the city center really suffered as a result of suburbanization caused by the car. Jane Jacobs says in her chapter called "Erosion of Cities or Attrition of Automobiles" in the book Autopia, "Today everyone who values cities is disturbed by automobiles (259...
Automobiles play an essential role in American society. As if being the major means of transportation was not impressive enough, automotives can be seen on T.V., in movies, in magazines, and can sometimes be indicative of a person’s wealth and social status. On average, Americans drive nearly 40 miles and drive for just over 50 minutes driving per person per day (http://www.bts.gov). That means a person spends roughly one-sixteenth of a day driving. It would make sense, then, to make such an essential part of society as efficient, cost effective, and clean as possible. However, that is not the case. As the years have passed cars have actually begun to move away from efficiency. Hawken writes, “[The automobile] design process has made cars ever heavier, more complex, and usually costlier. These are all unmistakable signs that automaking has beco...
Cars in America are almost a way of living now. The car a person owns shows the world what kind of person they are. Most of those cars are ten of the major car companies that dominate the car market. There are over 250 million cars on the road in America. Five of those ten car brands are American brands. More people should buy American cars because of the incredible safety and reliability, distinct style, equal or better fuel economy, and the support of American jobs.
Environmental Challenges of the American Auto Industry Since it rose in the 1900s, the American auto industry has been one of the leading industries in the US, and has flourished and matured over time. Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler became the biggest names in the industry, and their mass produced automobiles turned into the primary way that Americans get from place to place. In fact, from my experience, the automotive culture is still more active in the US than any other country I've been to. People rely on their personal cars to get anywhere, even in many big cities.
The Invention of The Automobile The first automobile was invented in Europe, however the automobile industry had an enormous favorable impact on the United States economy. Brown & Co. 329) There was not one specific person who "invented the automobile," but, there were many people who contributed to the invention of the automobile. (Ingrassia, 5) (Boyne, 31) These people include Isaac Newton, who developed a power carriage in the fourteen twenties, and Joseph Cugnot, who built the first steam powered automobile in seventeen sixty nine.