The War Against the Automobile, by B. Bruce-Briggs
Wilson, James Q.
BOOKS IN REVIEW - "The War Against the Automobile, by B. Bruce-Briggs"compost of smells at McSorley's was once described by a Bellevue intern as having more benefit to the mentally disturbed than psychotherapy.) By contrast, evenings, especially on weekends, are...
...The other is that smog is damned unpleasant—it makes my eyes water and itch, and I can't drive in a straight line while blinking and scratching...
...By contrast, evenings, especially on weekends, are noisy...
...Bruce-Briggs makes, I think, some mistakes...
...Devastating attacks, in literature as in war, are likely to destroy more than just the enemy, however, and this is no exception: Bruce-Briggs' fusillade cuts down everything in its path, but a few stray bullets injure some innocent bystanders...
...I drive a Porsche, wear knit ties, and teach at an Eastern university...
...Many stand, consuming their mugs of ale while ogling the bits and pieces of history adorning the walls...
...A good place to enjoy it would be while riding on the Bay Area Rapid Transit system in San Francisco, a vast and lovely monument to regressive taxation and engineering incompetence, or on the New York City subways, a vast and ugly monument to the glorious (and at the same time, practical) visions of a bygone era...
...I oppose the 55 mph speed limit and cheer every truck driver who comes up with a new way to evade it...
...Ralph Nader dresses like an undertaker who sells Thom McAnn shoes on the side, generally doesn't drive at all, and doesn't teach at an Eastern university (though he studied at two...
...Instead, the reader should enjoy the critical skills of Bruce-Briggs and his wide familiarity with the literature on the car and its effects on our society...
...In his onslaught against the critics of the automobile, Bruce-Briggs is determined to take no prisoners...
...The car has destroyed the collective (misJames Q. Wilson is Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government at Harvard...
...In the half-dozen years since women were admitted, they have become as much a part of the bar's evening trade as men,and in fact make no protest about having to share its one-room privy—complete with three bathtub-sized urinals—with their male counterparts...
...Now wait a minute...
...In the first seven chapters of his book, Bruce-Briggs gives a lively and on the whole accurate summary of many of the studies of safety, fuel, pollution, and the automobile industry and, in the process, reduces to rubble many of the ideological stereotypes that substitute for thought on these matters...
...I do not include in my list of good automobiles the Volvos and Ramblers that are required driving for faculty members at Eastern universities...
...I know that medical studies fail to show clear evidence of adverse health effects from smog, and I am glad Bruce-Briggs points that out (most people think it is a proven carcinogen...
...When steering a full-sized Chevrolet or a Ford station wagon, I sometimes feel I should make no manuever without first hoisting signal flags warning all other craft that I am about to change, slowly, ponderously, and uncertainly, my course...
...He is simply wrong to defend the poor engineering Detroit has devoted to the most important parts of a car—not the engine (Detroit has done marvels with that), but the suspension, steering, and brakes...
...And smog...
...They are a pox, a scourge, and besides they wear corduroy jackets and knit ties...
...The former are unwieldy, boxy, gutless examples of Swedish bad temper and the latter are the best argument anyone could ever make as to why George Romney should not have been taken seriously as a presidential candidate...
...Crowds of young men and women pack the place...
...Detroit is not a monopoly...
...read the book, study the (simple) tables, and form your own conclusions...
...McSorley's will probably be here when we're gone, too...
...Perhaps McSorley's enduring place in the history of American saloons is most felicitously stated by the simple declaration lettered in white across its front window: "WE WERE HERE BEFORE YOU WERE BORN...
...BOOK REVIEW The War Against the Automobile B. Bruce-Briggs / E.P...
...One is that the long-term health effects from any environmental cause are notoriously difficult to establish by public health research precisely because they are long-term and part of a complex environmental system...
...They are "elitist" and anti-American...
...On weekend nights the college boys who jam the back room get some pretty gamy ideas after downing a few ales, and often a waiter will stand guard at the door when a female customer is inside...
...I will declare my bias at the outset: I am hopelessly in love with good automobiles (of which more are manufactured today than once was the case...
...But two objections are in order...
...Some American cars today are slightly better than they once were in these respects, but on the whole they still drive like a lobster boat in a following sea...
...But I also believe that, whatever one's bias, it is possible to take evidence seriously and make reasoned judgments about the costs and benefits of forms of transportation...
...I think some finer distinctions are in order, and until they arrive, I urge the reader to skip chapter eight...
...Now you know the worst...
...The economists who have done the basic empirical work on the superior efficiency of private automobiles drive Volvos, wear knit ties, and teach at Eastern universities...
...For example: Vast areas of the country have not been paved over by the highway lobby...
...Automotive advertising does not mesmerize the consumer into mindless purchases...
...takenly called "mass") transit system and for a very good reason: By almost any measure, the car is a more efficient and more pleasant mode of transportation...
...The 55 mph speed limit cannot be shown to have saved many lives...
...Daniel Patrick Moynihan, who is referred to as the "Clausewitz of the war on the automobile," drives a Cherokee (you can't get more Middle American than that), wears bow ties, and has a dim opinion of Eastern universities, some of which have gone out of their way to make life miserable for him...
...Dutton / $10.95 James Q. Wilson This is a witty, devastating attack on some of the conventional criticisms against the automobile and on some of the favored remedies for its real and alleged defects...
...Detroit is not being unreasonable in saying that the air quality standards imposed by Congress are unreasonable—it is Congress that is unreasonable...
...Do not take my word for all this...
...The car has not destroyed our cities...
...These critics are part of the "New Class" of educated professional persons who seek to aggrandize state power by taking the credentials and lessons of Ivy League schools and turning them to the service of their own interests and ideology...
...Like her, and like Bill and Old John before him, Danny has kept the bar's traditions intact for the benefit of present and future generations of ale drinkers...
...If women want total equality, I don't see why the concept shouldn't extend to restrooms," says McSorley's current owner Danny Kirwan, who took over its management for his mother (now deceased...
...They are, among other things, "Porsche populists...
...30 The American Spectator February 1978...
Vol. 11 • February 1978 • No. 4
