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Most people are not
aware that at the time, the introduction of the automobile was a
wonderful weapon in the fight against pollution! Pollution that
came from
the entrenched transportation system of the era - HORSES!
Click the following link to
download a 800kb PDF that is quite amazing.
"From Horse Power
to Horsepower"
by Eric Morris
This article is from the
Number 30, Spring 2007 issue of ACCESS, the
official magazine of the University of California Transportation Center.
ACCESS is published twice yearly.
www.uctc.net/access/access.asp#special
(All articles published in all previous issues of ACCESS are available
for free download.)
Summary of interesting points
from the article:
#1 - For thousands of years
horses were used for personal transportation, freight haulage and even
mechanical power.
#2 - In the late 1890's a public health and sanitation crisis of almost
unimaginable dimensions loomed due to the era's predominate mode of
transportation: HORSES - nowadays considered a charming and even romantic
animal.
#3 - Urine, flies, congestion, noise, carcasses and traffic accidents were
huge problems.
#4 - Feeding each horse consumed 5 acres of land per year.
#5 - In 1880, in New York and Brooklyn, the horse population of 150,000 to
175,000 deposited between 3 and 4 million pounds of manure each day!
#6 - These horses also produced 40,000 gallons of urine each day.
#7 - In 1900. it was estimated that 3 billion flies hatched in horse
manure each day.
#8 - In 1880, an average of 41 dead horses (1,300 pound each) had to be
carted from the streets each day (15,000 annual).
#9 - in New York in 1900, 200 persons were killed by horses and horse
drawn carriages. The fatality rate per capita for automobiles
in New York in 1997 was 7 times smaller!
This is a fascinating read!!
I loved how, at the time, the now hated internal combustion engine powered
vehicle, the private automobile, was widely hailed as an environmental
savior! My. my, how time changes perceptions!
Technical evolution continues.
Solar SkyTran will become
the next important anti-pollution solution.
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