Long list of costs and expenses of the subsidized auto system

 

CreditCredit Photo Richard Vogel/Associated Press

According to analysis by the Texas A&M Transportation Institute, the average American commuter spends 42 hours per year stuck in rush-hour traffic. In the Los Angeles area, the figure is nearly twice that, equivalent to more than three days. A 2015 Los Angeles Times pollfound that among residents of that city, traffic concerns exceed those pertaining to personal safety, finances or housing costs.

The total cost of traffic associated with lost time and wasted fuel exceeds $100 billion per year. As time slips away, idling vehicles add pollution, which has environmental and health consequences, including contributions to climate change. Long-term exposure to vehicle exhaust is associated with respiratory problems, especially in children.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/21/upshot/stuck-and-stressed-the-health-costs-of-traffic.html 

Who pays for the health costs of cars?

Air pollution from cars and vans racks up health bills of nearly £6bn every year in the UK, according to a new report by researchers at the universities of Oxford and Bath.
The costs to both the NHS and society at large were highest in cities, and diesel vehicles were the worst offenders in terms of harmful pollutants.
In total, the scientists concluded the health cost of an average car in inner London over the vehicle’s lifetime was nearly £8,000. For diesel cars this figure was nearly double.

https://www.independent.co.uk/environment/cars-air-pollution-cost-nhs-vans-vehicles-health-bills-lung-disease-a8384806.html 

Texas oil booms characterized by pollution and waste

processhistory : "Mirroring the industry’s lawless oil towns, for much of the twentieth century, Texas’ oil industry regulation was minimal. In the 1920s and 1930s, gushers spewed oil across the desert. In West Texas, most oil was located on top of subsurface salt domes, which once tapped, spewed salt brine water across the desert. Oil storage tanks and drilling slush pits—used to collect chemicals, mud, and other debris produced during drilling—were unlined, often leaking into surrounding ranchland. Legislators critiqued such practices as gratuitous waste of a precious resource."

Economic calculation of EROEI. Are you including health costs and cleanup? What abut permanent damage to ecology? These are the uncounted costs of autosprawl, while profits is extracted from the oil well to the cul-de-sac.

World urban traffic congestion costs "hundreds of billions"

eurotransportmagazine: "The International Energy Agency expects urban growth demands to double road and rail travel by 2050, causing significant strain on public transport infrastructure. Furthermore, in cities around the world, rising congestion is costing hundreds of billions and affecting the health of the public. This is obviously a cause for concern, and puts sustainability and the liveability of cities as a focal point when deciding upon future transportation projects."

Auto subsidy "places enormous costs on our society"

TreeHugger: "From subsidies given to oil companies to produce cheap oil, to government bailouts/ownership of auto manufacturers, to road construction and maintenance on streets that cost nothing to use, to highly subsidized parking spaces, to government health care costs associated with pollution from automobiles, to the detrimental health that results from sedentary lifestyle that cars promote, to the vast government policing forces required to enforce our streets: it is undeniable that driving places enormous costs on our society, and this cost is highly subsidized by our government."

Costs of cars - health costs

medical express: "A Japanese study compared bus/train commuters, walkers/bikers and drivers and adjusted for other factors such as age, gender, smoking, and others. Compared to drivers, public transportation users were:
44 percent less likely to be overweight;
27 percent less likely to have high blood pressure; and
34 percent less likely to have diabetes."

Cost of cars, health

Study shows public health often ignored in transportation policy: ""The public health effects of heavy traffic are broad," said study author Carolyn McAndrews, PhD, assistant professor at the CU Denver College of Architecture and Planning, one of the largest schools of its kind in the U.S. "Studies have found associations between high-traffic roads and high mortality rates, lung cancer, cardiovascular disease, respiratory disease, poor birth outcomes and traffic-related injuries.""