Matters of Scale - Road Rage
Percent of surface area in the city of Los Angeles dedicated in some way to
the automobile (roads, parking garages, etc.) | 70 percent |
Percent of surface area in Los Angeles devoted to parks and open space | 5 percent |
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Number of people killed in Amtrak passenger train accidents in the United States since 1971 | fewer than 100 |
Number of people killed every year in automobile accidents in the United States | more than 40,000 |
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Number of deaths in the United States due to airline accidents in 1997
| 8,014 |
Number of pedestrians and cyclists killed in the United States by motor vehicles in 1997
(the equivalent of a commercial airline crash with no survivors every two weeks) | 6,100 |
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Number of people displaced each year in the United States by new highway construction | 100,000 |
Number of Croatians displaced by war in 1997 | 100,000 |
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Cost of fuel in the United States to drive 24,000 kilometers (15,000 miles) in Honda's
2000 Insight, which gets 28 kilometers/liter (65 miles per gallon) | $415 |
Cost of driving that same distance in Land Rover's 2000 Range Rover, which gets
6 km/l (15 mpg) | $1,800 |
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Total vehicle kilometers traveled by automobiles in Japan, France, Germany, Sweden,
Italy, Canada, and the United Kingdom combined in 1997 | 2.6 trillion |
Total vehicle kilometers traveled by automobiles in just the United States in 1997 | 2.4 trillion |
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Sources: David Engwicht, Reclaiming Our Cities and Towns: Better Living With
Less Traffic (Philadelphia: New Society
Publishers, 1993); personal communication with Irene Paul, Department of Parks
and Recreation, City of Los Angeles, 28
June 2000; personal communication with Steven Taub, Amtrak representative; Alliance
for a Paving Moratorium website
<
www.tidepool.com>; Consumer’s Union, “How Green is Your Pleasure
Machine?” Grist Magazine, 20 May 2000; Federal
Aviation Administration, U.S. Department of Transportation, Headquarters
Intercom,
8 September 1998; Immigration and
Refugee Services of America, World Refugee Survey 1998 (Washington, DC: USCR
Publications, 1998); Environmental
Protection Agency fuel economy website <www.fueleconomy.gov> (based on
$1.80 per gallon for price of fuel); Federal
Highway Administration, Federal Highway Administration Highway Statistics
Series
1997 (Washington, DC: U.S. Government
Printing Office, 1997) and U.S. Department of Transportation, Bureau of Transportation
Statistics, G-7 Countries:
Transportation Highlights, BTS99-01, Washington, DC, 1999, <www.bts.gov>.
Compiled by Danielle Nierenberg.