The Nation - News from June 12, 1988

The automobile was once an efficient way to get around but now causes such traffic problems and health hazards that people must learn to use other means of transportation, according to a study. “Excessive reliance on cars can actually stifle rather than advance societies,” said the report by Worldwatch, a private think tank. Passenger cars in use around the world grew to 386 million in 1986, from 53 million in 1950, the study said. As a result, motorists in hundreds of cities creep forward at speeds slower than a bicycle’s, the survey said. It said that more than 200,000 people died in 1985 in traffic accidents worldwide. In the United States, about 30,000 people die each year of diseases resulting from the use of gasoline and diesel fuel, the study said. Governments, it said, should require that cars be made more fuel efficient and less polluting, expand public mass-transit systems and encourage affordable housing near jobs.