Motor Vehicles in the Environment: Principles and Practices

PERHAPS MORE THAN any other single product, motor vehicles today embody the dilemma faced by society between economic growth on the one hand and the desire to protect the environment on the other. At a time when environmental issues are firmly placed on the political agenda, particularly in the richer nations, voters, producers and politicians alike cannot afford to overlook the environmental consequences of the production, use and disposal or re-use of vehicles. By drawing mostly on European and North American examples and wider analyses of the international motor industry the eleven chapters of this book examine the nature of this dilemma and the policy issues it raises. The first chapter presents some background information on the recent surge of environmental awareness and an overview of the main environmental issues related to the production, marketing, use, legislation and disposal of motor vehicles. The authors argue that, even in the short term, partial solutions, however strict, such as the elimination of all vehicles without catalytic converters proposed in Switzerland, are likely to be ineffective. The second chapter introduces the principles behind environmental economics and concludes that to accommodate environmental demands along with the need for economic growth, a market approach is needed with appropriate taxes and subsidies, prices and standards and the extension of property rights. The third chapter examines the global environmental implications of the motor vehicle industry, including the infrastructure (road-building) and raw materials (metals, fuels) it requires for its development. The fourth and fifth chapters look at alternative modes of urban transport to the motor car. The bicycle is viewed in chapter four as part of what its author calls a “green transport system”, consisting of an individual motorized transport mode (the green car), an individual non-motorized mode (bicycle and foot), and a collective, mostly public, mode. Using illustrations and lessons from Northern Europe, particularly the Netherlands, a case is made to place the bicycle at the centre of the “ideal city of the year 2050”. The light rail as an intra-urban public transport option is the theme of chapter five, whose author uses recent experiences in introducing or enlarging light rail networks in the United Kingdom, Northern Europe and North America to consider their advantages and disadvantages. Chapter six discusses the politics and paradoxes behind the UK government’s environmental policies towards the motor vehicle during the 1980s and early 1990s. Despite the goal of reducing harmful emissions, an entrenched laissez-faire attitude plus a lack of public sector investment has resulted in the number of private cars continuing to rise. The theme of government policies is continued in the next chapter which compares vehicle emission legislation and incentives in the USA, whose high standards have been copied around the world, and Europe, where increasingly tougher European Union measures to limit emissions are gradually being introduced. The legislative and technical background of the “greener truck” in the UK is the subject of chapter eight. The author notes that, in the past 20 years, cars have improved in terms of fuel economy but they have not improved either their average occupancy nor their productivity; this is in stark contrast to trucks, whose performance on all counts has improved continuously. Chapter nine looks at a less well-known aspect of the link between vehicles and the environment, that of the impact of environmental pressures on the automotive presswork industry, a well-established sector producing steel car body shells. The theme of car production continues in chapter ten with an analysis of the environmental and production implications of a “long-life car”, defined as a car with an average useful life of 20 years rather than the more prevalent 10-12 years for cars in Europe (1989 average life figures range fro