The car industry began to steer the debate in a totally new direction in 1923, not because of a sudden concern for pedestrian welfare, but out of concern for its own survival. After years of rapid growth, sales of cars had fallen for the first time, and many in the industry felt that the constant portrayal of their products as child-killing death

Sloan turned GM into more than just a model for the car industry. His reorganization of the company ensured that day-to-day decisions were devolved to the managers of each division, but financial oversight was centralized, with each division reporting its results, and being allocated resources, in a standardized way. Just as Henry Ford had defined

The suburban-commuter lifestyle is synonymous with car ownership today, but long predates it. The first commuter suburbs grew up along horsecar lines starting in the 1850s. In many cases real estate companies laid rails for horsecars to connect their suburban property developments to the city center.

As GM gained ground, even reductions in the Model T’s price were insufficient to revive Ford’s sales. By 1926 the Model T’s market share had fallen to 30 percent of cars sold in America, from its peak of 55 percent three years earlier. Ford ceased production in May 1927, shortly after the 15-millionth Model T had rolled off the line, then spent a

Horseless carriages of this form were demonstrated by inventors in London in 1774 and Paris in 1779. And in 1813 Karl von Drais, a German physicist and inventor, built a horseless carriage that could carry four people, with one of them steering using a tiller, and another providing the motive power by pedaling. The problem with all these vehicles

The idea of steam power was known to the ancient Greeks, but practical devices that exploited steam power to do useful work first emerged in the eighteenth century.

But the company’s refusal to update the design had become a liability. The Model T looked old-fashioned

an active debate was under way about which was the better long-term bet as an automotive fuel. Ethanol and gasoline, both hydrocarbons, are slightly different in their chemical makeup. Ethanol burns more cleanly but has a lower energy density: a given volume of the fuel contains about one-third less energy than the same amount of gasoline.

Futurama had popularized the notion of superhighways among policymakers and the American public alike, laying the ground for a postwar boom in highway construction. Its centerpiece was the Highway Act of 1956, which allocated billions of dollars to construct an interstate highway system. Construction of intercity highways was for the most part