Automobiles

History

Perhaps surprisingly, environmental arguments have surrounded the car from the very beginning. Many welcomed the opportunity of reducing or even eliminating the growing urban problem of horse manure, and dead horses in the street were not uncommon either. It is estimated that at the turn of the century around 15,000 horse carcasses were removed from New York streets annually. Horses also deposited over 1,000 tons of manure and 225,000 liters of urine every day. By 1908, the cost of cleaning up this waste was put at $100 million a year. In London, some 5,000 tons of horse manure had to be removed from the city every day. Although the agricultural sector formed a ready market, it was still regarded as a major problem.

Contemporary environmental arguments centered around the then-fashionable concepts of hygiene and fresh air. The cities, with their deteriorating air and water quality, as well as the side effects of the horse economy, did not have much to offer in this respect and were considered major sources of bad “miasma.” Similar to the train and bicycle before it, the car provided a means of escaping the “bad” air of the city in favor of clean country air, with all its perceived health benefits. In fact, some medical authorities at the time argued that the greater speed enjoyed by those traveling in a car allowed the ingestion of larger quantities of clean air. Clearly, the new ability for city dwellers to become aware of the countryside and nature in general did much to promote a love and understanding of the natural environment. This trend started with the bicycle—the first mechanical mode of individual transport—and was picked up by the car. The car was promoted with the same arguments of health and freedom as the bicycle, and many wealthy cyclists quickly transferred their allegiance to the new vehicle, which could take them much farther afield than [Page 18]its nonmotorized counterpart. The sportsman image of the bicycle was also transferred to the car, which meant that it had a head start in being associated with healthy outdoor pursuits and in adopting a positive and healthy aura. If this seems ironic to the modern observer, it must be remembered that environmentalism itself would probably not have developed without the car and its ability to take people to areas of nature they might otherwise have been largely unaware of, let alone appreciative of.

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