Effects Of Street Car Essay

Human transportation has always had an impact on the environment, with cars having arguably the largest impact. According to Superfreakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner transportation immediately prior to the development of cars was entirely depended on horses and horse-drawn carriages. By the end of the 19th century, New York had around two-hundred-thousand horses roaming the streets. Each horse created around thirty-five pounds of feces per day. The introduction of cars was expected to provide a much cleaner solution to transportation; however, this was a misconception. In reality, according to Brandon Keim, writer for Nautilis, the late 19th and early 20th centuries were actually the age of street cars. These street cars were

Prior to the industrial revolution the levels of toxic chemicals in the air were low. After WWII and the rise in the popularization of cars air pollution spread to many major cities. In the 1940s citizens of LA began complaining about yellow-brown smog, composed of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons, sulfur oxides and nitrogen oxides. Because LA was one of the first cities to experience the impacts of air pollution they were also the first city to raise public concern of car emissions. In 1947 coal and fuel oil was banned from industrial purposes, however smog continued to rise. By investigating the cause of smog even further scientists in LA discovered the main sources of smog were engine exhaust, engine ventilation, the carburetor and the fuel tank. These investigations directly led to the creation of technologies that controlled emissions. Over the next few decades laws were written with the aim of limiting emissions. In 1990 the Clean Air Amendments set strict standards for emissions. This new policy led to more interest in alternatives to the internal combustion engine such as electric powered vehicles or even