Miles to Go: European and American Transporation Policies

This incisive and highly readable book offers a broad range of perspectives, directions, and policy options for transportation planners and political practitioners. Dunn compares various modes of American transportation with those of three western European countries that have historically been faced with greater resource constraints in terms of energy use, environmental and land-use controls, and financial commitments. Specifically, the piecemeal fashion in which the railroads of France were brought under public ownership is compared with the similar-but lagging-trend in the United States from private ownership to federal control; the relative success of mass transit in West Germany is contrasted with the dismal decline of mass transit in American urban conglomerates; and "the rise and fall of the road fund" in Britain is examined both on its own terms and in terms of the perspective it accords in recounting the American experience in highway building. In addition, a chapter on the automobile probes the mechanisms that Europeans have applied to bring the runaway automotive culture under a reasonable degree of control, mechanisms that are in a sense being tested for Americans against that time when they fully face up to the necessity of putting the car in its proper place in the national lifestyle. A final chapter summarizes the author's transatlantic contrasts and completes his demonstration of the importance of cultural and institutional factors in shaping the "paradigms of public choice." He concludes that resource constraints are moving America toward a more European-like need for social efficiency in transportation, and offers some fundamental policy principles based on the European experience to guide the transition.Dunn, James A., Jr. is the author of 'Miles to Go: European and American Transporation Policies', published 1981 under ISBN 9780262040624 and ISBN 026204062X.