The Utilization of Private Automobiles

Abstract

The excessive and spontaneous increase in the number of privately owned automobiles that is presently seen in the economically developed capitalist countries has posed complex economic and social problems by overburdening roads and streets, impeding the development of public transit, polluting the environment, necessitating the neutralization of transport noise, causing significant resources to be channeled into the production and servicing of private automobiles, etc. In the United States, for example, the one-sided orientation toward the privately owned automobiles has not only not solved the transportation problem but at the same time has brought the public transit system to such a critical state that in November 1974 President G. Ford had to sign an act authorizing the payment of $11.8 billion in subsidies to public transit over a period of sixyears. Experts consider even this amount to be too small. (1)