Surprisingly , the modernautomobiledidn’t get its start in the United States , where we cerebrate of cable car as omnipresent , but rather in Germany . Historians generally gibe that the first working car , made by German engineer Gottlieb Daimler and named after his daughter , Mercedes , appeared in 1884 . At nigh the same clip , another German , Karl Benz , designed his own , similar rendering of the cable car .
But before prospicient , car technology unfold rapidly to other state , let in America , and by the thirties , the Germans were looking at American route systems to make grow the famed Autobahn superhighway .
The motorcar is basically synonymous with modern American lifetime , and if you look around many city and suburban area in the United States , you ’ll see why the connexion is so unattackable . authority buildings , residential areas and shopping shopping mall are all built with the car in mind . The emergence of the auto as a consumer trade good even transfer the corking landscape painting of the United States . Suburbs develop out of cities and expanded metropolitan field , and personal transportation made it easy for Americans to commute longer distances . Without the car , there ’d be no point in rear giant hoarding on the side of the road , and the approximation offast foodprobably would n’t even survive .
Today , we swear on car more than ever . For an idea of how significant they are in America , one - third of all the land in the city of Los Angeles , Calif. , a place notorious for its excessivetraffic , is paved for motorcar travel . The auto is a relatively recent phenomenon – it ’s only been around for a little more than a century – and yet it ’s managed to make a gravid impact on U.S. culture .
How did the motorcar become so important in American living ? Why not train , subwaysystems or other forms of public exile ? To find out why car rule the route – and why the road were built at all – read on .
Early Travel in America
Long before Americans ever saw the first car touch U.S. filth , change of location was an unforgivably uncomfortable attempt . It ’s unmanageable to look out of your windowpane and think of a time when there were n’t any roads in North America , but that ’s precisely how it was . Up until the former nineteenth hundred , before the introduction of the automobile , there were very few major highways or roads on which to travel , and most people went by either knight - drive coach orrailway .
Coaches were jolty and uncomfortable , principally because the use of spring for shock absorption was n’t rough-cut . Because of this people rarely traveled outside of their hometowns , if ever . By far , U.S. railroadswere the most popular way to get around . Since it was much fast and slightly more comfortable , railroad line travel essentially put an destruction to the coach , and from 1830 to the former 20th century , Americans would bear on to " road " when speaking of train . At its peak in 1920 , the rail diligence was carting around 1.2 billion people [ source : Duke University Libraries ] . trolley car andsubwaysystems also emerged during the turn of the 100 , dramatically changing metropolis lifestyles by offering masses the chance to travel around and search . Urban railway transportation also increased metropolis populations and provided a welcome option to horse cavalry - driven stroller , which crowded the street and produced far too much manure .
Up until this point , steam had been the primary power author for self propelled vehicle , and there really was n’t much stake ingasoline . In fact , gasoline was seen only as an unwanted by - ware of theoil - refiningprocess . Peopledrilling for oilhad more interest in elicit kerosene , used for illumination . Even several decades after its invention , the car was looked upon as a frivolous toy . Not only were they expensive , but there were n’t any roads on which to take them . Among the many name in the beginning given to the elevator car , " stink chariot " stands out , presumptively referring to the unpleasant spirit of exhaust .
If motorcar caused everything from indifference to disgust , then how did they become so popular ? Read the next page to discover how the Ford Model T changed everything .
The Obsession with the Automobile
Despite the initial minus images people had of automobiles , between 1900 and 1915 , the turn of cars in America leap from just 8,000 to more than 2 million . The man given the most credit for this rapid gain in car is Henry Ford , father of theFordMotor Company . Ford coined the term " assembly transmission line , " and by give mass output principles to the process of building automobiles , the Ford Motor Company was able to make 14 million Model T ’s between 1913 and 1927
[ source : Hofstra University ] .
This Brobdingnagian increment in product , along with lower toll , a large surge of investment in automobile and thedemise of many bod of railwaytransportation conduce to a greater demand for automobile and fossil oil . A group calledNational City Lines , made up of several ship’s company – include General Motors , Firestone , Standard Oil of California and Phillips Petroleum – formed in the twenties to purchase up streetcar systems around the country and change them to bus lines , make machine travel mandatory . What the group did not only stifled public transportation , it was also illegal . Although National City Lines was found guilty of conspiracy to monopolize public theodolite , they were only fined $ 5,000 .
By 1956 , President Eisenhower signed the Interstate Highway Act and produce more than 42,500 Swedish mile of main road across the nation while spending less than one percent on public transport . Soon , the U.S. government would be drop 75 percent of its Department of Transportation funding on building and animate roadstead ; less than one percentage would be dedicated to hatful transit for urban positioning .
Today , with the rising cost ofoildriving the monetary value of gasolene up past four and even five dollar a Imperial gallon , many people are seeking out alternative means of transportation . masses who ’ve go out to the suburbs to annul urban bread and butter , for object lesson , are now considering move nigher to their jobs in the metropolis for save money at the pump . The median suburban household now expend more than $ 3,000 a year , twice the amount families were spending in 2003 [ source : New York Times ] . The auto industry has also suffer setbacks as motorcar sales are reaching a 10 - yr Sir David Low , spend 18 percent in June 2008 [ source : New York Times ] . All of these factors may give public transport a healthy boost : On June 27 , 2008 , the House of Representatives voted to provide $ 1.7 billion toward public transportation to assist lot with risingfuel price , control fares and expand table service [ source : Los Angeles Times ] .
For more information about cars and their impingement on our lives , read the next page .
