Forschungsgruppe »Große technische Systeme«
des Forschungsschwerpunkts Technik - Arbeit - Umwelt am Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin
FS H 92 - 506
Car Traffic at the Crossroads New Technologies for Cars, Traffic Systems and their Interlocking
by
Reiner Grundmann
Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung gGmbH (WZB) Reichpietschufer 50, D 1000 Berlin 30
Car traffic at the crossroads: New Technologies for Cars, Traffic Systems, and their Interlocking
Abstract
This paper examines the literature in the field of research which is known as ’Large technical systems’. It tries to apply some of its findings to the system of automobile traffic. On the basis of a review of relevant publications, mainly from automobile engineering, three examples of technological change are discussed:
competing systems of motive power (internal combustion engine, electrical, hybrid), transit systems and attempts at automation via electronic road management. The dynamics and chances for radical change are discussed as well as the theoretical models which could illuminate them.
Automobilverkehr am Scheideweg. Neue Technologien für Autos, Verkehrsleitsysteme und Verbundsysteme
Zusammenfassung
In diesem Papier wird die Literatur der Forschungsrichtung ’große technische Systeme’ daraufhin untersucht, inwiefern sie für das Verständnis der Veränderungen, die das Automobilverkehrssystem in naher Zukunft durchlaufen wird, relevant ist. A uf Basis einer Recherche von Publikationen aus dem Bereich des Automobihngenieurswesens sollen drei Beispiele eines möglicherweise radikalen Wandels untersucht werden: verschiedene Antriebssysteme (Verbrennungsmotor, Elekroantrieb, Hybridantrieb), Verkehrsverbundsysteme und Bestrebungen, den Autoverkehr durch den Einsatz von elektronischen Leit- und Steuerungssystemen weitgehend zu automatisieren. Die Dynamik und Möglichkeiten radikaler Änderungen werden ebenso diskutiert wie die theoretischen Modelle, die sie erfassen könnten.
List of Abbreviations ABB Asean Boveri Brown AC Alternating current
AD AC Allgemeiner Deutscher Automobil-Club AEG Allgemeine Elektrizitätsgesellschaft ATZ Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift AE Automotive Engineering
BMFT Bundesministerium für Forschung und Technologie CO Carbonmoxide
CO2 Carbondioxide DC Direct current
DIW Deutsches Institut für Wirtschaftsforschung EC European Community
EUREKA European Research Koordination Association EV Electric vehicles
GM General Motors HC Hydrocarbon
IVHS Intelligent vehicle highway system LISB Leit- und Informationssystem in Berlin LTS Large Technical Systems
NaS Sodium sulphur NOx Nitrogen oxide
PROMETHEUS Program for a European Traffic with Highest Efficiency and Unpredented Safety
R&D Research and Development RDS Radio-Data-System
RWE Rheinisch-Westfälische Elektrizitätswerke SO2 Sulfur dioxide
TMC Traffic Message Channel
UCLA University of California, Los Angeles VDA Verband deutscher Automobilhersteller
Introduction1
In this paper I want to examine the existing literature on large technical systems (LTS) and try to apply some findings to the development of the car-traffic-system.
Since there exists no study from scholars working in this field, I shall first present some theoretical elaborations of the LTS-discourse which offer defintions, properties and dynamics of large technical systems (1). Then I shall try to apply these to the car-traffic-system, investigating the question in what sense this system will undergo a radical reconfiguration (2). Therefore, I shall present three cases of empirical material, i.e. (2.1.) various systems of motive power, (2.2.) transit systems and (2.3.) attempts at automation via electronic road management relating three theoretical models to them. These are: the system-builder-approach by Thomas Hughes, the interorganisatorical network approach by Bemward Joerges and the actor network approach by Michel Calion and Bruno Latour. The conclusion (3) will bring together the different strands of discussion.
1 I would like to thank the participants of the LTS Conference ’Large
Technical Systems in Radical Reconfiguration’ (Vadstena/Sweden, 7.-11.8.1992) especially Donald MacKenzie for comments and critique on an earlier version of this paper. The paper profited also from a discussion in the technology
colloquium organized by Werner Rammert at the Free University Berlin,
Department of Sociology, 20.5.1992 and from comments by Ingo Braun, Glenn Bugos, Mikael Hard and Ulrich Jurgens at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin. Part of the research for this paper was supported by a grant from the Fritz Thyssen foundation which is gratefully acknowledged.
1. A Large Conceptual System
As James Flink pointed out in his book The Automobile Age, ’the American Highway network is the most costly public-networks construction effort in human history and the most important visible symbol of the transformation of the American landscape by automobility.’2 A similar judgement would hold true for most western countries. However, until now car traffic networks have not been analyzed by scholars working in the field of Large Technical Systems (LTS). It seems high time to overcome this deficiency.
If one looks at the literature on technical systems, one will detect different approaches, definitions and fields of study. In a very broad fashion one could distinguish between those approaches which concentrate on large organizations and business enterprises based on specific technologies on the one hand (technical systems = TS) and those which concentrate on networks of different organizations and technical structures on the other (LTS). I shall start with the formulation of a theoretical outline given by Tom Hughes.
In Hughes’s model, technical systems ’embody the physical, intellectual, and symbolic resources of the society that constructs them.’ (Hughes, 1983, p. 2) Hughes stresses the need for control of these systems and their goal-directedness.
’The goal of an electric production system, for example, is to transform available energy supply, or input, into desired output, or demand.’ (id., p. 5).
2 Flink 1988, p. 315.
The decreasing of technological alternatives, the strengthening of networks, the
’entrenchment’ of technologies is described by Hughes towards the end of Networks o f Power in the following way:
’These sociotechnical systems had high momentum, force and direction because of their institutionally structured nature, heavy capital investments, supportive legislation, and the commitment of know-how and experience. This momentum was a conservative force reacting against abrupt changes in the line of development.
Because of the conservative momentum, rarely were radical inventions, technical or social, introduced.’ (id., p. 465).
Another important feature of technical systems is the tendency to maximum coverage of the net, as Hughes stresses: ’... in modern industrial nations technological systems tend to expand, as shown by electric, telephone, radio, weapon, automobile production, and other systems. A major expalantion for this growth, and one rarely stressed by technological, economic, or business historians, is the drive for high diversity and load factors and a good economic mix... The load factor is the ratio of average output to the maximum output during a specified period.’ (Hughes, 1987, p. 71-2).
I chose to juxtapose Joerges’s model here since he stresses the unplanned, and often unintended character of many Large Technical Systems: ’Retrospective studies of LTS show that they never develop according to the designs and projections of dominant actors: LTS evolve behind the backs of the system builders, as it were. It has been shown... by LaPorte... that typically none o f the agencies contained in LTS manage to form a somewhat complete picture of their
workings. LTS seem to surpass the capacity for reflexive action of actors responsible for operating, regulating, managing and redesigning them in ways which, as social scientists, we understand poorly.’ (Joerges, 1988, p. 26).
It might be a rather scholastic exercise to give a watertight definition of a Large Technical System. However, as Joerges points out, ’... some types of technical systems can be singled out as undisputably large: those complex and heterogenous systems of physical structures and complex machineries which (1) are materially integrated, or "coupled" over large spans of space and time, quite irrespective of their particular cultural, political, economic and corporate make-up, and (2) support or sustain the functioning of very large numbers of other technical systems, whose organizations they thereby link.’ (Joerges, 1988, p. 24).
An LTS, therefore, is not a single manufacturing enterprise or firm. As Joerges makes clear, ’LTS are not technical systems contained in, or co-extensive with identifiable organizations and their external reaches. Rather, LTS contain many organizations. Some of these wholly merge with LTS, others only partially, some are concerned with operating their technical subsystems, some with other, non-technical components of LTS.’ (Joerges, 1988, p. 25).
However, LTS represent a societal dilemma, as Joerges observes: ’They are hard to blackbox for good, have an irreducible potential for controversy, and their integrations with their social base remain precarious, because for structural reasons strategies aiming at closure tend to reproduce conflict on a larger scale.’ (Joerges, 1988, p. 27).
The process of black-boxing plays a prominent role in the work of Latour and Calion. During the innovative process a network of heterogenous elements is emerging which gets stable if the innovation is to succeed. Tom Hughes describes the nature of system building, the drawing together of heterogenous elements in the follwoing way: ’Technological systems contain messy, complex, problem-solving components... Among the components in technological systems are physical artifacts... organizations..., and they incorporate components usually labelled scientific, such as books, articles, and university teaching and research programs.
Legislative artifacts such as regulatory laws, can also be part of technological systems.’ (Hughes, 1987:51).
As Latour put it, a black box can be a scientific text or a machine, ’ a well- established claim’ or an ’unproblematic object’. (Latour, 1987, 131, 23, 41). This means that humans and non-humans ’act together’ (as they put it in a somewhat counterintuitive way) in the construction of a new technology. At the same time that the new technology emerges, also a support network comes into being. Both support each other, no determinism is implied. At first sight, this approach has no direct relationship with the problematic of large technical systems. However, as I shall suggest, it can be used - as a radical extension of Hughes’s and illumination of Joerges’s approach - to present some of the underlying problems in an interesting way.
Does the car-traffic-system belong to the familiy of (L)TS or not? Let us take, for example, the criterion that the elements of the system are coupled, all depends on the definition of the components of the system. If we take roads, traffic signs, rules and norms of regulation, cars, trucks, etc. as components of the system, it would
be a matter of dispute how tightly coupled these components are. If we, by contrast, would give a definition in which automobile firms, filling and service stations, roads, bridges, tunnels, local authorities, hospitals and interest groups were the components of the system, the question of whether the system is tightly or loosely coupled might not get a simple answer. For example, Renate Mayntz writes that it may be difficult for a superficial observer to detect the system properties in the example of the automobile: ’The coupling of different components o f the automobile system (the network of roads and the institutions which are involved in its construction and maintenance, the cars, the network of gasoline and service stations) is so loosely that a passing observer might not even see a system.’3. But the car traffic system certainly links large numbers of other technical systems and organizations (cf. Joerges above).
Another feature of technical systems is the load factor, as an important reason for the growth of technical systems and their integration. The operational temptation to achive maximum coverage is certainly present in the case of road- and rail-based traffic-systems. In the projects under discussion in this paper, it is intended to increase the load factor by means of tighter coupling of different large traffic systems but also to increase the load within single systems. Seiffert estimates a
3 ’Beim Autoverkehrssystem ist die Koppelung der verschiedenen Komponenten - das Straßennetz mit den für Ausbau und Aufrechterhaltung verantwortlichen Institutionen, die Kraftfahrzeuge, das Netz von Tankstellen und Reparaturwerkstätten - sogar so locker, daß es dem flüchtigen Betrachter
schwerfallen mag, hier überhaupt von einem System zu sprechen’ (Mayntz, 1988, S. 238-9, my translation).
possible load increase of 30% by means of a more efficient traffic management4.
However, the maximum load is not the optimum load. Take the example of highways. Here the maximum load is achieved with an average speed of 16.2 km/h.
At this speed 1800 cars can be accomodated on a highway, on each kilometer 111 cars (which contrasts with 10 cars at the speed of 200 km/h; in Germany there is no speed limit on highways). However, this maximum coverage would hardly be regarded as travelling. A load factor of 48% would still permit top speed of 100 km/h5.
4 See the pilot project in Oakland County, Michigan (USA) which is based on machine vision systems to measure and guide traffic flow; ’Field deployment of Autonscope in the FAST-TRAC ATMS/AHS programme’ Traffic
Engineering and Control, September 1992, p. 475-483.
5 Vester, 1990, p. 408 f.
2. The Future of the car-traffic-system6
Following questions shall be in the focus of my discussion:
In what sense will the car-traffic-system undergo a radical reconfiguration? What dynamics does this process have? Is there a pattern of technological development?
Is the radical innovative technology to be found in niches? Will there be substitution or coexistence of different technologies?
These questions, shall be examined through the discussion of three examples: (2.1.) the possible revival of the electric vehicle, (2.2.) the growing importance of public transport and (2.3.) electronic road management.7
(2.1.) Towards a Revival o f the electric vehicle?
Growing environmental awareness and tighter emission standards have forced the automobile industry to develop new technical solutions to the problem of pollution and depletion of natural resources. From the seventies onwards, attempts to reduce gasoline consumption and exhaust have been underway. Therefore, new engines have been designed and the catalytic converter and the lean bum engine have been introduced. This process was in Europe quicker as regards gasoline consumption
6 Apart form newspaper reports, this section draws on a review of the journals Automobiltechnische Zeitschrift (ATZ), Motortechnische Zeitschrift
(MTZ), Automotive Engineering (AE), and Elektrotechnische Zeitschrift (etz), years 1989-1991.
7 1 concentrate on examples from Germany and the U.S. Since the topic is extremely complex, I shall leave aside trucks and buses.
than in the US, but the enforcement of tighter emission standards and the introduction of the catalytic converter has been quicker in the US.
That more radical measures than reduction of gasoline consumption and emissions are necessary, has long been felt by the public and parts of the political and legal system. According to the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, the emerging unrest in the automobile sector and a perceivable discontent with traditional car- and motor- systems has reached the giants of this industry8 .
DER SPIEGEL reports on the Frankfurt Motor Show of 1991, in a like fashion, writing that this time the big car firms seem to show a readiness for action as never before - and that they have every reason, since they are forced to it9.
However, what the car industry has to offer is light years away from envisioned environmental norms. As several studies have shown, road traffic plays a
8 ’Die aufkommende Unruhe in der Autobranche, eine spürbare
Unzufriedenheit mit den bisher gültigen Fahrzeug- und Antriebskonzepten, hat nun auch die Giganten dieser Industrie ergriffen’, FAZ, 16.7. 1991. Volkswagen and the Swiss SMH, the latter being known for its wristwatch Swatch, are collaborating in the development of an electic vehicle: ’Das Swatch-Mobil kommt aus deutschen Landen. Bei VW stehen die Eckdaten für das alternative Auto des schweizerischen Uhrenfabrikanten Nicolaus Hayek - Hybrid-Antrieb und hohe passive Sicherheit’ (ibid.) ’Wir wollen etwas wagen’, DER SPIEGEL, 28/1991, p. 88.
9 ’Diesmal geben sich die Autokonzerne handlungsschwanger wie nie, sie stehen unter Zugzwang. Immer lauter denken Politiker über Tempolimits, CO2- Abgaben, Sperrung von Innenstädten und andere Restriktionen gegen den
Individualverkehr nach.’ DER SPIEGEL, 37/1991 ’M it Vollgas ins Klima- Chaos’, p. 261.
paramount role in pollution. Although there has been and there will be a reduction of all pollutants except particles by the year 2010, the emissions of CO2 will further increase. Road traffic produces 20% of all CO2 emissions, automobiles alone account for 75% in that category10. The electric engine seems to perform better as regards NOx, CO and HC, and worse as regards SO2 because German electric power plants (coal-based) deliver 30% of electricity. CO2-emissions will also increase, according to an estimate of the Bundesumweltamt in Berlin. An electric vehicle will produce 24 kilograms CO2 every 100 km compared to 20,5 kilo of the internal combustion engine.11 The problems connected with electric vehicles could only be bypassed if the electricicty could be generated by solar or wind energy. Not surprisingly, the nuclear energy lobby also spotted new opportunities to praise its services. Michael Renner (World Watch Institute) writes with respect to the U.S.: ’Electric vehicles essentially emit no pollutants. Their environmental acceptability, however, depends on how the electricity that powers them is generated. Nonfossil feedstocks would be most ideal. Using electricity derived from the current mix of power sources in the United States, an electric vehicle would release about the same amount of CO2 as a gasoline-fueled car, more sulfur dioxide, but much lower amounts of other pollutants. Electric cars running on coal-produced electricicty would substantially increase the amount of CO2 released.’12
10 Rommerskirchen, Becker & Eland, 1992 for Germany; White 1982 for the U.S. (without data for CO2).
11 DER SPIEGEL, 37/1991 ’M it Vollgas ins Klima-Chaos’, p. 267.
12 Renner, 1988, p. 44-5.
Table 1: Development of car traffic, Germany
unit 1976 1982 1987 2010
Car fleet Millions 18.9 24.1 27.9 37.2
Total mileage
Billion kilometers
255.0 294.4 356.9 465.1
Average mileage
1000 km 13.5 12.2 12.8 12.5
Average passengers
Passenger per car
1.63 1.55 1.47 1.35
Average trip length
km 16.0 17.1 17.5 19.2
Transported persons
Millions 25 973 26 665 30 026 33 544
Person- kilom eter
Billions 415.1 455.4 526.1 631.1
Trips by car Millions 10 096 20 536 23 655 28 704
source: Kratttanrtbundesamt, caicin itions of u iw , Kioas & Kuhteid, iy y u , p. 412.
Black boxing: too many problems are unresolved, too many variables in flu x It is interesting that the elements of a new generation of cars are all existing, partly for a long time13. It is thus astonishing that few of these have been put into practice until now, says Frederic Vester, author of Ausfahrt Zukunft, a study which was commissioned by Ford Cologne some years ago. ’There are light cars, short cars, high cars, comfortable cars, solar cars, cars which run without gasoline, cars with Stirling engines, with high-tech-electronics ... But all are far away from what
13 In fact, the electric vehicle technology is as old as the main technological paradigm of the internal combustion engine. In 1899, the electrically powered Jamais Contente established a speed record of 104 km/h. The third main technology was the steam engine (which did not survive as motive power for cars).
a systems logic would demand.’14 Vester sees the reason for this shortcoming in the linear thinking of those responsibles, who only focus on one single problem at a time. But Vester’s lesson is ’If you change only one component at a time, you will have no success’. The car industry will have to learn to think in system terms and become courageous enough to change many components simultaneously if it does not want to suffer the same experience as the dinosaurs.
His illuminating account seems to contrast with the findings of the recent literature in the history and sociology of technology which stresses the feature that engineers, business managers and system builders solve critical problems in order to be successful - the process of problem-solving is also known as ’black-boxing’.
Usually they identify a range of problems which have to be solved if the technology is to be stabilized. In the case of the ’ecological car’ there seem to be many variables involved which have to be solved simultaneously on the purely technical level. Vester is right that a radical change in the components of a car will also require a change of the overall traffic system since the electric cars envisioned by him are slower, lighter and shorter than traditional cars. It seems as if he were left with the "chicken and egg" problem: An electric car will not spring up unless there is adequate demand and inffastrucure, the intrastructure will not spring up unless there is adequate demand and new vehicles, while such demand is unlikely to materialize in the absence of adequate inffastrucure and electric vehicles at competitive prices. However, a system builder who could force all the recalcitrant elements together into unified whole is not in sight. It seems as if there are so
14 Vester, 1990, p. 404, my translation. By systems logic Vester means a bio-cybernetic approach.
many ’reverse salients’ (Hughes) that a potential system builder would not even know where to start15.
It is at this point that the proposed methodology by Latour and others can help us further16. They mention an important point in the process of establishing facts and artifacts: the creation of networks. In the case of the electric vehicle this network takes shape in form of an alliance between electricity firms (including power plants), battery devices, car designers, environmentally conscious consumers, political leaders, local authorities, interest groups etc. The quasi-machiavellian approach emphasizes that a successful politics of alliances has to give the same weight to artifacts as to human actors: if the artifacts cannot be stabilized, the whole network falls apart.
This is exemplified by the yet uncertain outcome of the wager on the electric vehicle. According to a survey commissioned by Opel, 95% of potential German car purchasers would go for an electric model if the price remains below 25000 DM. However, at present prices for electric cars are much higher17. Automobile firms say they would mass produce such cars provided cheap and powerful batteries become available. Conversely, electrical firms state that prices can only
15 Vester recommends that the car industry (out of its enlightened self- interest) takes the initiative for the setup of a new traffic-system. At times, Vester himself looks like a would-be system builder, changing roles from Don Quixotte to Machiavelli.
16 Latour et al., 1992.
17 The newly manufactured electric FIAT 500 costs around 37000 DM.
go down if mass production becomes a feasible goal18. The CO2 problem also enters the game. Since the public debate is focussing on the problematic of greenhouse effects and other environmental problems connected to CO2 emissions, the electric car does not solve as many problems as had been hoped. On balance, the electric car need not be ’cleaner’ than the gas-burning car; all depends on the sources of energy input (see above). For this reason (among others), electric cars will not substitute the dominant paradigm but rather complement it in a modest way. It will remain a niche technology for the forseeable future. This means also that the modest market shares (with equally modest profit expectations) keeps the bis car firms back.
Additionally, the time dimension becomes crucial here. It is not most ’efficient’
problem solving but early problem solving which has the chance to become the leader in the definition of a trajectory19. 100 years of experience with the internal combustion engine and nearly 20 years experience with gasoline saving technologies have given the dominant design a solid advantage. If the engineers come up with an internal combustion engine which consumes around 3 litres every 100 km20, the energy balance could come close to what would be the case with
18 AD AC Motorwelt, Nov. 1992, p. 46.
19 Cf. Morales & Storper, 1991, p. 96.
20 The President of Volkswagen, Ferdinand Piech, A T Z 94 (1992, Heft 1, p.
20-23) admits that such an objective cannot be achived with engine
modifications alone. Tn addition to engine efficiency, fuel consumption is decisively influenced by the resistance to motion and, most especially, the
weight of the vehicle. Weight could be reduced by up to 35% with the aid of ...
aluminium body... With extreme optimization to body aerodunamics, the resistance to motion can be cut by a further 35%.’ (id., p. 21).
electric cars. Improving additionally on catalytic-coverter technology would give the dominant design another chance to continue its trajectory. To be sure, such a technological fix would not be sufficient for the forthcoming Californian legislation.
However, if the composition of the car fleet changes at the end of the century towards ultra-low-emission cars (whic consume little gasoline), legislation might become less strict again.
Conservative Innovations
Over twenty years ago Lawrence White remarked that ’perhaps the most striking thing about automotive technology in the postwar period has been the lack of fundamental change or advance. Cars built in 1968 are not fundamentally different from cars built in 1946 [...] Consequently, in describing the behavior of the auto companies with respect to technological progress, we are dealing with refinements of the technology, innovational advances to bring basic inventions to a marketable state, rather than with the basic inventions themselves.’21
’When we look at the overall product trends in the market, it is clear that, in addition to the trend to diversity of models after 1949, ... the long-run trend has been to larger, more luxurious cars with more power and more luxury options.’22
In 1988, Michael Renner wrote that ’prior to the seventies, the auto’s utility and sustainability were hardly questioned. But a decade of gas ohne lines and oil price increases left the automobile with all the momentum of Los Angeles traffic at rush
21 White, 1971, p. 211.
22 White, 1971, p. 216-7.
hour. Then worries about escalating gas prices and future fuel availability seemed to subside in the eighties almost as quickly as they had emerged. Improved energy efficieny and additional oil supplies recovered, driving is up, and affluent customers are once more shopping for high-performance cars.’23
Mikael Hard has introduced a helpful distinction between two different types of innovative activity among engineers. He claims that the degree of global regularity is substantial only on the level of technological visions and Leitbilder, not on the level of local technical solutions. In other words, standard solutions rarely emerge on the level of particular technological solutions - but on the level of technologcial trajectories, goals, archetypes and visions24. In the case of the diesel engine, he lists as such global patterns, lower engine weight per horsepower, higher speed, more horsepower, higher torque, especially at lower speeds25. If we apply this line of thought to the present case, one would expect one (or few) global vision(s) and many local solutions. And in fact, this is what can be observed also in our case.
There are some global patterns like reducing gasoline consumption and emissions, building links between traffic systems and introducing smart electronic road-
23 Renner, 1988, p. 6.
24 Hard mentions two important points: First, ’the creation of black boxes on the local level is highly important for design and production as practical work;
that is, that some degree of local stability is needed for research, development, and commercialization to function properly. Second, tat the degree of global stabilization seems to be lower on the level of design solutions than on th elevel of design golas and trajectories, and that the former are interpreted in
accordance with the local habitus. (Hard, 1992, p. 75).
25 ’Although the relative strength of these trajectories could vary between regions, they are, nevertheless, globally observable.’ (Hard, 1992, p. 67).
management, whereas local solutions vary to a considerable degree (see 2.2.). It is impossible to list all local projects which have to do with a more ecological car alone, but among them are certainly technical solutions in the field of battery technology, electric propulsion systems, gas turbines, ceramic engines, hybrid technology, range extenders, alternative fuels, solar cell technology, fuel cell technology, cutting the rolling resistance of tires, improving aerodynamic performance, and lighter materials for car bodies and engines26.
If one accepts the present paradigm of the automobile, at first it seems clear that the simple substitution of the internal combustion engine with batteries and electric motors is not very attractive. Average cars of today weigh more than 1200 kgs - a weight which will increase by incorporating batteries which are heavy (another 200-300 kgs). However, this is what traditional car producers did until recently when trying to meet environmental standards. Another example are prototypes of cars (Fiat, Toyota, VW) which have an automatic engine stop-start27. The so- called hybrid-vehicle which has an internal combustion engine and a small electric motor is yet another example for for this conservative approach28. These cars are
26 Cf. Bleviss, 1988 for a good overview; see also Morales & Storper, 1991.
27 Bleviss, 1988, p. 74-6. Cf. also ATZ 92 (September 1990) ’Zeitweise Motorabschaltung - Kritische Zeiten bezüglich Schadstoffemission und Kraftstoffverbrauch’, S. 526-532.
28 The ’Audi-duo’ is based on a Audi 100 Avant four wheel drive. In this case the cardan-shaft linking to the rear axle has been eliminated and supplanted with an electric motor. The performance is rather modest: the 12 PS electric motor accelerates in 8 s. to the speed of 30 km/h, top speed is 50 km/h, maximum radius 30km. There will be additional costs of 25.000 DM. Cf. etz
1990, No. 3: ’Hybrid-Fahrzeug-Konzept für den Individualverkehr’.
the physical embodiment of an engineering approach which tries to build into the existing artifact a device which is supposed reduce gasoline consumption and emissions - a typical ’end-of-the-pipe-technology’. Only recently have BMW and VW presented two prototypes which are smaller and lighter29. The president of the Volkswagen company, Ferdinand Piech, in presenting an outline for a vehicle which consumes 31/100km , holds that the task is not to find a new technological concept but to define a reduced new vehicle concept30.
Turning to electric vehicles, it must be said that most of the prototypes from big car producing firms are heavy, expensive and unattractive. This results from the wide use of lead-acid-batteries which have modest performance at low costs.
However, there are also ’independent’ car producers trying to build another type o f car, ie. a smaller and lighter car. These cars, which weigh around 600 kgs, are slower in acceleration than cars with internal combustion engines but are able to keep up with the current speed of city traffic, are easily rechargeable and can be built at nearly competitive prices if produced on large scale31. At present, several prototypes are being tested in different cities32. For the time being, the new
29 Cf. the article on the BMW E l in ATZ, (1992), p. 358-364; and on the VW Chico in A T Z (1992), p. 24-32.
30 A T Z 94 Heft 1, (1992), p. 21.
31 ’Edler Plastikbomber’, Wirtschaftswoche No. 8, 1992, p. 90-93. Lenz &
W iescholek estimate that this point is reached at a production volume of 100 000 units (Lenz & Wiescholek, 1990, p. 438).
32 A T Z 110 (Februar 1990) ’Hybridtechnik von Volkswagen in Zürich im Großversuch’. Starting in summer 1992, the minster for research and technology (BMFT) will be running a 3-year project of 60 electric vehicles (cars, vans, buses) on the island of Rügen. Until now, the BMFT has spent over 100 million
technology is rather complementary than substitutive.
This situation will not change in the near future, although the electric industry is preparing the battle for market shares of electric vehicles right now. ABB intends to start with a production volume of 40 000 batteries annually from 1994 on, the Austrian SEA (100% daughter of Elin, the state-owned Austrian electric corporation) will start their annual production of 10 000 batteries from 1993 on.
Also RWE and AEG are preparing their entry into the market. The technical characteristics of batteries are different in different companies: ABB and RWE work with sodium-sulphur33, SEA with zinc-bromine34 and AEG with sodium- nickel-chloride35. Technical problems include safety aspects, recharging times, and
DM for the development of sodium-sulphur-batteries. Cf. ’Großversuch zur Erprobung von Elektrofahrzeugen geplant’ 44 Internationales Verkehrswesen, Jan-Feb 1992, p. 49.
33 etz 1990, Heft 12, ’Na-S-Hochleistungsbatterie 25.000 km ohne Störung’.
The British Chloride Silent Power and RWE have recently formed a joint venture to manufacture and market sodium-sulphur batteries, cf. Morales &
Storper, 19991, p. 34.
34 Wirtschaftswoche, (1992) No. 8, p. 90. ’The zinc-bromine battery shows promise for EV use because of its potential high energy and low cost
characteristics.’ Morales & Storper, 1991, p. 34-5.
35 A T Z 93, 1991, ’Hochenergiebatterie von AEG’. However, it is not clear what picture we get regarding comparative costs. Lenz & Wiescholek (1990) maintain that there is no market for the electric vehicle. They calculate a price of 7.1 Pfg./km for an electric-powered Golf as against 6.6 Pfg./km for the conventional model. Their calculation is based on average gasoline prices o f 83 Pfg./l (1987); in the meantime these prices have risen again. There exist only estimates on the volume of externalities produced by private car traffic. For Germany the estimates vary between 45 billion and 100 billion Deutsche Mark.
If one would consider this sum for calculating taxes on motor vehicle use, a
power of batteries on the one hand and propulsion systems on the other. As a research team at the UCLA put it, there is a trade-off between energy density and useful life. ’High energy density provides high power and acceleration as well as long driving ranges. Long battery life is critical for economic reasons. No commerically available battery performs efficiently in both areas; increasing energy density almost inevitably results in reduced battery life.’36 Until now it is not clear whether AC or DC electric motors will be used for electric vehicles37.
The R&D departments of German car producing firms are mainly concerned with the improvement of the traditional technology of the internal combustion engine, especially with the further reduction of pollutants by means of optimizing the engine design and the functioning of the catalytic converter. Since the catalytic converter is of no help against CO2-emissions, the further reduction of gasoline consumption and alternative fuels are imperative.
It is most interesting to observe the sort of argumentation and rhetoric used by the engineers38. Above all stands the authority of purely technical factors which are presented in a way as if they themselves could justify a technological paradigm.
Especially important are the notions of efficiency (Wirkungsgrad) and energy density (Energiedichte) which are traditionally uttered as battle cries of defenders
different pattern of comparative costs would emerge.
36 Morales & Storper, 1991, p. 35.
37 Cf. Ibid., p. 36, see also AE, Nov. 1990, p. 67-8.
38 The rhetoric is so common and ubiquitous that I refrain from giving a specific source.
of the internal combustion engine (these are ’global’ dimensions in Hard’s sense, cf. above). It is interesting to note, however, that recently also the electric industry is using this type of argument.39 This hypostazation of technical parameters proves to be fictious in cases where the parameters of the social world are changing, ie. when oil prices go up, when environmental laws get stricter, when consumer needs towards cars change. The Wirkungsgrad o f a motor or the Energiedichte of a energy resource is only one factor which plays a role in the design of a new engine or a new car concept. To be sure, engineers like their world of Wirkungsgrade and they surely think that these represent the ’real core’ of their design efforts. Consequently, they regard the reduction of emissions as an outside perturbation which forces them to accept compromises.
Turning to the local dimension, according to my observation German engineers think that the superiority of the catalytic converter in the efforts to reduce emissions is beyond dispute. The lean burn engine is said to be out of the battle for ever40. Interestingly enough, American, English and Japanese firms have different views on this matter. Toyota, for example, tries to combine the three way catalyst with the lean burn engine41. The same holds true as regards the prospects for the
39 As a manager of ABB Hochenergiebatterie put it, cf. Dustmann, 1989.
40 AE, March 1989, ’Catalyst or lean-bum engine?’: ’Volkswagen has completed a major research programme which, it says, has demonstrated that lean-burn engines cannot match, under all conditions, the low pollution levels produced by catalyst-equipped units.’ (p.74, my emph.).
41 AE, April 1991: ’Sensors and the intelligent engine’, p. 33-36.
two-stroke-engine42.
As indicated above, the same conservatism can be seen with respect to the development of an electric vehicle43. Until now, it seems as if the German automobile industry cannot get rid of the model of the all-purpose-vehhicle44, therefore favouring solutions which retain the internal combustion engine as the technical core of the car. The hybrid-car and more fuel-efficient cars are examples.
The mainstream translates the global vision of a less polluting car into local solutions which do not vary too much from one to another. Therefore, activities within the niches become important for radical innovations. It is up to the electric industry and independent designers and engineers (also to nations which are ’free’
from automobile corporations as Switzerland and Austria) to come up with a new paradigm of the car45. It seems that VW wants to keep in contact with such innovations frorm niches, as the cooperation with SMH shows. However, only the future will tell, if the ’Swatch-Mobile’ becomes reality.
42 AE, August 1989, ’Novel two-stroke engine concept employs poppet valves and supercharger’; AE, December 1989: ’Toyota’s poppet-valve-
controlled and supercharged two-stroke engines’. Reports on attempts at Toyota, to develop two-stroke engines for gasoline and diesel. It must be said, however, that also Ford Cologne is working on a small car with a two-stroke engine.
43 Cf. Knie, 1991 with respect to the diesel engine.
44 The same is true for the protypes from GM (’Impact’) and from Tokyo R&D (’NAV = Next Generation Advanced electric Vehicle’), see Morales &
Storper, 1991, p. 40.
45 For an overview over prototypes of electric vehicles, see Vester, 1990, p.
357-382; Morales & Storper, 1991, p. 37-41.
Turning to the general outlook for more ’ecological’ automobiles (i.e. including engines based on alternative fuels) there is no reason to be too optimistic about the near future since ’the potential of alternative fuels to substitute for gasoline varies considerably from country to country and fuel to fuel. In the short run, no single alternative is likely to become a panacea with global applicability. Those that emerge are likely to supplement gasoline, rather than replace it. In the longer run, hydrogen could become a universally used fuel. But an enormous research boost is needed now to make its generation less costly and to achieve breakthroughs in hydrogen-vehicle technology.’46
To sum up so far. The large technical system of automobility was designed by no single person nor firm, it grew in many decades in a (gloablly) unplanned way. The potential and actual limits to growth of this system make more or less radical changes inevitable. In this process the emerging alliances in different networks are of decisive importance. The general pattern which defines new trajectories are global: they have to do with pollution, congestion and conservation of resources.
The proposed solutions depend on local engineering cultures.
(2.2.) Transit Systems and their possible interlocking
Fighting traffic congestion and pollution, the restructuring of the whole traffic system (in most European and other cities) seems an unevitable task. Until now, however, the owners, managers and users of various means of transportation have
46 Renner, 1988, p. 25. For Brasil’s Pro-Alcohol program, see Weiss, 1990 and Cabral, 1991.
considered themselves as part of a ’zero-sum-game’, i.e. ’I gain what you lose’
(and vice versa). There are some signs that matters are changing and a ’symbiotic’
reading will gain importance, i.e. ’we all profit from each other’. A simple thought makes clear why also the automobile industry has an interest in such interlocking networks: driving becomes more attractive when congestion decreases. So-called
’Verbundsysteme’ are the talk of the day. This means that car, bus, railway, subway, bicycle and walking should complement each other. A prerequisite for this would be establishing efficient links between them. Thus Renner has argued that
’it is time to build a bridge from an auto-centered society into an alternative transportation future characterized by greater diversity of transport modes, in which cars, buses, rail systems, bicycles, and walking all complement each other... A first step governments can take ... is to discourage auto use where possible. Local and national governments already impose a variety of physical and financial constraints on automobile use in particular areas or at specific times.’47.
There exist technical devices which would allow electronic road pricing. Hong Kong experimented with such a system already in 1982. Every car would be equipped with a electronic number plate which can be read by sensors which are installed on the roadside. A signal is transmitted from the electronic number plate to a computer center which saves the information. Every car has an account which is indebted when passing certain control points. The owner of the car receives his balance every month; if she does not pay or does not possess a valid electronic number plate, she will be fined. This system allows local authorities to make access
47 Renner, 1988, p, 49. Cerwenka gives an overview over road-pricing
systems in Singapur, Hongkong, Stockholm, and Bergen, cf. Cerwenka, 1990, p.
76-7.
to inner areas of cities (or generally: to areas which are congested) more difficult because costly48 49.
It seems obvious that the linking of different organizations and networks can best be conceptualized by Joerges’s approach of Large Technical Systems. Since the linking of organizations is a crucial feature of this approach, it would be worth investigating further into the institutional requirements of such Verbundsysteme*9.
48 See Cerwenka, 1990, S.76-77 and the cited literature, especially Dawson et al., (1985) ’Electronic Road Pricing in Hong Kong’ 26 Traffic Engineering and Control, and Goodwin & Jones (1989) Systems o f Infrastructure cost coverage, E.C.M.T. Round Table, Paris 1989.
49 There is some literature on new institutional forms ranging between the traditional distinction of markets and hierarchies from which this strand of research might benefit, cf. Imai & Itami, 1984; Teubner, 1992.
Table 2: Volume of traffic, Germany.
Transported Persons Performance (Million Personkilometers) (Millions)
1976 1982 1987 2010 1976 1982 1987 2010
Transit 6 566 6562 5788 5135 68 503 75 951 69 687 66 629
-work 1 779 1411 1 274 840 19 747 15 827 14 490 9 469
-education 1 856 2 054 1 655 1 651 14 477 15130 11 928 11 771
-business 121 145 151 155 1 815 2 389 2 463 2 766
-shopping 1 472 1 578 1 487 1 370 9 862 13 480 13 256 12 385
-leisure 1 332 1 367 1 213 1 106 20 951 26 015 25 345 27176
-holiday 5 8 9 13 1 651 3110 2 205 3 062
Railway 1 024 1 120 1 088 978 36 250 38 349 39 949 43 267
-work 439 461 444 360 7 901 8 021 7 615 6 317
-education 217 246 209 191 3 429 3 862 3 170 2 868
-business 38 45 58 65 4 016 4181 5 726 7 997
-shopping 128 146 150 143 2 860 3 265 3121 3 1 9 6
-leisure 188 208 213 205 14 378 15 319 16 445 18 434
-holiday 14 14 14 14 3 667 3 700 3 872 4 455
Car 26 791 27 861 31 180 35 663 419 391 462 402 533 362 638 027
-work 6 748 7 695 8 603 9 863 79 270 101 135 116 214 142 735
-education 825 1 022 1 002 1 003 9 352 12 698 12 664 13 434
-business 4 074 3 702 4 067 4 283 65138 59 465 67 782 75 005
-shopping 5 617 5 672 6 086 7 200 41 465 44 734 49140 60142
-leisure 9 468 9 704 11 355 13 326 181 817 196 515 238 668 291 369
-holiday 59 65 68 77 42 358 47 864 48 894 55 342
source: statistisches Bundesamt, DLH, Socialdata München, Berechnungen des DIW, Kloas & Kuhteld, 199Ü, p, 360.
Radical critics of the present system of transportation assume that there are synergistic or holistic relations between the components of this system, i.e. they reinforce each other. Vehicles which have limited range, top speed and acceleration will be ideal for city traffic. Given the huge interest of city administrations in cleaner and less noisy city traffic, they might be a strong ally in the ’electrical network’.
There is a term used very often by traffic experts: modal split. This means that transport can be done on rail or road, by car, by train, by ship or by plane.
According to Vester, a new definition of the modal split should make sure that electrical vehicles are used only for trips shorter than 50 km (which is mainly in the city)50. For trips between 50 and 100 km the traditional car could find its place. For distances between 100 and 1000 km the railway should be used and for trips over 1000 km the airplane. The electric cars will be lighter, shorter and higher than present automobiles (s. above) and they can be loaded onto trains (see figure 1) where they can be easily recharged during the journey.
Entwurf eines Entwicklungsprojekts der Schindler Waggon AG zur Querverladung auf der Bahn
However, a look at the past prognoses of the development of car traffic shows, that volume and intensity of car traffic has been steadily growing. The same is feared for the future, viz. that these measures will not be sufficient to accomodate the overwhelming future growth of traffic systems, and, especially of car traffic. As
50 This accords well with findings of traffic statistics for Germany where only 3% of all trips are longer than 50 km, and 25% below 1 km, see
’Dokumentation Kontiv 1989’ 44 Internationales Verkehrswesen, No. 3, (1992), p. 88.
Joerges has emphasized, LTS cannot be blackboxed for good; they constantly create the conditions for their own transformation. Two typical crises accompany this process, a crisis of legitimation and a crisis of control51. At present, downsizing has become an issue among city planners and traffic experts in order to tackle both the problem of legitimation and of control. I shall briefly mention three examples.
Firstly, there are attempts to introduce incentives which would lead customers of new cars to buy a car in the next lower category (of horsepower, of cubic- inches)52. However, this measure which is aiming at a further reduction of CO2 emissions is not considered to be efficient53. Secondly, in some big cities like Berlin, roads are narrowed to slow down traffic in inhabited areas and also to divert it. This measure is linked to reduced speed limits (30 km/h) or to the creation of a separate bus lane. Thirdly, there are many advocates of cities in which people live and work in the same areas. Renner put it in the following way: ’Reorienting transport priorities can be successful only within the framework of a comprehensive urban policy. There is a symbiotic relationship between land use patterns and transportation networks... The more concentrated both population and jobs are, the
51 Cf. Joerges, 1992.
52 Cf. VDA, 1990, p. 42.
53 Cf. ibid. Therefore, the VDA sees upsizing as an appropriate way to reduce CO2 emissions by building more roads. The VDA estimates that a better road network will reduce stop-and-go traffic, thereby reducing CO2 emissions by 30-50% (ibid., p.40). Electronic road management is said to reduce them by 8-10% and the linking of private traffic and transit systems by 5-7%. These figures seem to be highly dubious - the interests behind this approach are too obvious.
shorter are travel distances, the more mass transit becomes viable, and the more walking and biking occurs. In short, more compact cities foster less individual motorized transport.’54 It remains questionable if this perspective is compatible with the requirements of present-day society which rewards mobility. Apart from this, this vision does not seem very attractive to those who fear a life-long affiliation with one’s working place and housing next to it.
(2.3.) Electronic Road Management or The Importance o f Standard-Setting
At present, special attention is given to electronic traffic guidance systems which should give automobilists information on the traffic flow and available parking space. The main problems in this area seem to lie on the level of finding common standards55. Electronic traffic systems are designed to make fuller use of existing traffic capacities, highlighting another feature of technical systems which I
54 Renner, 1988, p. 51.
55 AE, No. 3, (1991) TVHS’ ( ’Intelligent Vehicle Highway System’) reviews different systems. Standard setting not only touches upon different technical devices but also on health issues. Electromagnetic waves from radiofrequnecies may be harmful for humans. There are three phenomena: irritation, warming-up and ionization (Cf. ’Elektrosmog als Gefährdung des M enschen?’ Technische Rundschau, No. 4, 1992, p. 32-34). High-frequency-radiation is to be expected to increase considerably in the near future. The most important phenomenon seems to be heating of human organisms. Human bodies behave like receiving antennas which absorb radiation when it is in resonance with the wave-length.
Heating reaches its maximum in the inner body, especially in layers rich of water. Since our temperature-regulating mechanism based in the skin is by
passed by high-frequency radiation, there is no proper reaction to the heating - this occurs only as a reaction to the increased body temperature. Especially elderly people and little children might suffer from exposition to this radiation.
New standards are required. The apparently innocent radio-technology might turn out to become a major issue of public concern.
mentioned above: the tendency towards maximum coverage of network activities.
There are several projects under way which try to establish electronic road management. As Automotive Engineering put it, ’today’s cars have very little built- in intelligence for receiving information about the surrounding traffic environment.
A nd most highway systems have little capability for sensing traffic densities and speeds. In other words, we have not-very-smart cars on dumb highways.’56.
In a similar vein, the director of R&D at Volkswagen, Ulrich Seiffert, writes on the coupling of different traffic systems: ’We still have singular and uncoupled (or only losely coupled) traffic systems which all have developed independently from each other. The use of electronic media in guiding the traffic between these different systems takes place only in exceptional cases.’57.
Seiffert acknowledges the fact that most trips are undertaken for leisure purposes (see table 2). The chances for transit systems to break into this domain are not very high since the patterns of behavior differ strongly. It is therefore important to attract traffic from work-, business-, and shopping transport. This is much easier since these activities are characterized by some basic traits which can be taken into account by flexible, market-oriented and client-friendly transit systems. In the middle term, this would relieve cities and regions from congestion.
56 AE, 1991, No.3, ’IVHS’, p. 15.
57 Seiffert, 1991, p. 553.
In this model, traffic would be relocated from the city to its periphery58. Parking in cities would be costly with scarce parking places; parking at the periperhy would be cheap and offer the possibility to change to bus and rail59.
In order to avoid park-search-traffic, it is imagined to use digital radio. The Radio- Data-System (RDS) has a special Traffic Message Channel (TMC) which delivers digitally coded traffic reports without interrupting current radio-programs. With the help of TMC drivers can be advised of available parking lots, pricing, remaining capacity and even reserve a parking lot space60. Seiffert imagines also a chip-
58 W hat sort of ecological attitude lies behind this thinking? asks Schreiber, (1991) in a provocative vein: ’Wer das Auto forsch aus der Stadt wirft, allein auf Bahn und Bus setzt oder die Stadt wir ein Parkhaus behandelt, bei dem
"Pförtneramplen" Ein- und Auslaß regeln, präsentiert sich gern als ökologischer Urbanist. Seltsam unsensibel ist indes die Einmütigkeit, mit der solche
Urbanisten, auch jener von Zürich, das Auto an den Stadtrand und aufs Land verweisen. Wohnen dort etwa keine Menschen, werden dort etwa keine
Raumeindrücke und Naturwerte zerstört?’
59 Parking is a problem as old as the automobile. James Flink gives an illustration: ’By the end of 1916 even the editors of Automobile were
overwhelmed that "every day in big cities the parking problem grows more acute. If it is bad today, and indeed it is so, what will be the situation in 3 years? We are facing something which was never foreseen in the planning of our towns, a thing which has come upon us so swiftly that there has been no time to grasp the immensity of the problem till we are almost overcome by it."...
Articles in Motor, for example warned, "Stop! You are Congesting the Streets,"
and asked, "Will Passenger Cars Be Barred from City Streets?'” (Flink 1975, p.
163).
60A£, No. 3, 1991, p. 16.
card61 which can serve as confirmation for the parking lot, as ticket for transit and as means of payment for both. Seiffert strongly favours the car-radio as a medium of communication, not so much the development of new devices. The radio is a most commonly used and familiar artifact. Radio and chip-cards are the technical links which couple different traffic systems in Seiffert’s model.
The president of the Verband der Automobilindustrie (Association of Car Manufacturers), Erika Emmerich, favours a centralized traffic management which organizes the whole city traffic ’under one roof and responsibility’, ie. individual car traffic, transit, and parking adminstration should be centrally organized. She also has high hopes in the electronic information- and steering-system as a technical basis for this centralized management.
A step towards this new technology is the European project PROMETHEUS which was initiated in October 1987 as an R&D project within the EUREKA program’s framework. It falls into several sub-programs:
- Improved driver information - Active driver support
- Cooperative driving (inter-vehicle communication) - Traffic fleet management62.
61 He labels it ’anonymous’ chip-card, presumably in order to forestall criticism of possible violation of data privacy.
62 Cf. AE, No. 3 (1991), p. 17 ff. Berlin is running the pilot project LISB (’Leit- und Informationssystem in Berlin); cf. VDA (1990). For a recent
overview of programmes within the EC, see Keith Keen, ’European Community research and technology development on Advanced Road Transport Telematics,
1992-1994’ Traffic Engineering and Control, April 1992, p. 263-267.
As this section has shown, there are several would-be system builders on the scene who would like to perform all the tasks which we find in Hughes’s model and which we listed in the beginning of this paper. However, there are some decisive differences between car traffic and other LTS such as electricity, telephone, airplane or railway-traffic. They have to do with the different technical properties of the system and the different cultural embeddedness. I address both in turn.
The suspicion arises that the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) was modelled after the Traffic Management Coordinator (TMC) in Air Traffic63. The term traffic fleet management suggests such a parallel. However, there seem to be such fundamental differences between air-traffic and car-traffic, between pilots and drivers, that high expectations in this area are completely misplaced. The dangers which would be inherent in such a solution are not to be underestimated. As LaPorte & Consolini (1991) have shown in the example of air traffic in the U.S. (which they label ’high- reliability organization’), there exist traffic systems which are complex, tightly coupled but nevertheless exhibit an extraordinary safety performance. However, the different components of the overall traffic system do not seem to possess the requirements of ’high-reliability-organizations’ since individual means of transport are not driven or guided by people who are highly motivated to do a good job on a professional level within a team. Rather, people like to drive or bike according to their own rhythms, own moods and own (un-) responsibility etc. Drivers are not pilots and cannot be handled by traffic controllers in ways which apply to air traffic. The envisioned traffic guidance might simply be rejected by drivers since they regard this as an attack at their autonomy.
63 See LaPorte & Consolini, 1991, p. 37-8.
What makes driving so thrilling?
This brings me to the second decisive difference which sets automobility apart from other LTS. The quasi-monopoly character of the car-traffic-system stems from its unique fashion in delivering ± e service of individual mobility. As White aptly remarked: ’What if commuters actually like driving to work? A car perhaps represents one of the last bastions of privacy in modern America, where a man is away from his family and his boss and colleagues. He can sing, shout, scratch his ears, turn the radio on loud, and make threatening gestures and shout obscenities at other motorists, all without fear of social rebuke... A car is responsive to the driver’s wishes; it is he who is actually controlling 4,000 pounds of steel and complex machinery. He has control over his immediate environment to a degree probably not equaled anywhere else in his daily routine.’64
Apart from economic explanations65, it should be said that the car culture has such a stability since it satisfies many needs people seem to project onto the automobile - of belonging, of safety, of power, of comfort, of wholesomeness, etc.66 Religious67 and sexual68 connotations have been especially prominent in critical
64 White 1971, S. 236.
65 Cf. Renner, 1988, p. 50; Flink, 1988, p. 362 ff.; Barrett, 1975, p. 474.
66 Cf. Sachs, 1984, p. 151 ff.
67 Cf. Barthes, 1964. As Schreiber put it, ’Als Friedrich Nietzsche, in den Schriften "Die fröhliche Wissenschaft" und "Also sprach Zarathustra", immer radikaler über den Tod Gottes nachdachte, also in den Jahren 1882 und 1885, konstruierten Benz und Daimler ihre ersten Kraftwagen mit
Verbrennungsmotoren. Nach einer alten philosophischen Lehre ist Gott ein
