The economic and social effects of the spread of motor vehicles : an international centenary tribute

## THE OVERVIEW There are now over 470 million motor vehicles in use throughout the world. This huge and daunting total means that there •is one vehicle for every ten people on earth: men, women and children. Although private cars and taxis preponderate (there are over 320 million of them), and motor cycles add over 60 million more, this leaves over 90 million commercial vehicles of various sorts: vans, lorries and buses. 2 Farm tractors have not been included, though they are sometimes referred to incidentally in subsequent chapters. Important as they are to agricultural development, they are not primarily vehicles which run upon public roads; they would add only a little over 21 million vehicles to the total. This remarkable outpouring of the motor factories on to the roads of the world has not occurred at a steady pace over the past century. Most of it has taken place since the 1940s. Registration statistics collected at the beginning of 1940, which included China and the USSR, suggest that there were then only about 47 V2 million vehicles all told, including over 8 million lorries and buses and over 3 million motor cycles. 3 That is to say, there are now ten times as many motor vehicles now as there were then. Motorised two-wheelers now form a larger part of the whole and lorries and buses a somewhat smaller part. When the United Nations began its statistical series after the war, the grand total had already risen to nearly 55 million ( 12 V2 million of which were lorries and buses); and these figures excluded not only motor cycles but also all returns from the USSR, mainland China and the countries of Eastern Europe. 4 The true total must then (1948) have been appreciably more than 55 million. Front Matter....Pages i-xiii A German Centenary in 1986, a French in 1995 or the Real Beginnings About 1905?....Pages 1-54 The Beginnings of the Automobile in Germany....Pages 55-66 The Motor Vehicle and the Revolution in Road Transport: The American Experience....Pages 67-80 The Early Growth of Long-Distance Bus Transport in the United States....Pages 81-96 Diesel Trucks and Buses: Their Gradual Spread in the United States....Pages 97-114 The Automobile and the City in the American South....Pages 115-129 Some Economic and Social Effects of Motor Vehicles in France since 1890....Pages 130-147 Why Did the Pioneer Fall Behind? Motorisation in Germany Between the Wars....Pages 148-164 Motorisation on the New Frontier: The Case of Saskatchewan, Canada, 1906–34....Pages 165-193 The Internal Combustion Engine and the Revolution in Transport: The Case of Czechoslovakia with Some European Comparisons....Pages 194-213 Japan: The Late Starter Who Outpaced All Her Rivals....Pages 214-235 Motor Transport in a Developing Area (i) Zaïre, 1903–59....Pages 236-255 Motor Transport in a Developing Area (ii) Soviet Central Asia....Pages 256-263 Death on the Roads: Changing National Responses to Motor Accidents....Pages 264-290 Advances in Road Construction Technology in France....Pages 291-312 Back Matter....Pages 313-324