Motor vehicles and their related emission sources, such as petroleum refineries, emit many different kinds of air pollutants, which affect human health in a variety of ways. These health effects create a large economic cost to society. In this report, we estimate the social cost of many of the...

The detrimental effects of ambient ozone on crops, even at relatively low concentrations, are well-established (Thompson et al., 1976; Heck and Brandt, 1977; Heck et al., 1982; Environmental Protection Agency, 1984; California Air Resources Board, 1987; Olszyk et al., 1988a, 1988b; Heagle et al., 1986; McCool et al., 1986,...

Particles and gases in the atmosphere scatter and absorb light, and thereby reduce visibility (Watson and Chow, 1994; Richards et al., 1990; Ozkaynak et al., 1985). Although natural sources of particles, such as volcanoes, can significantly degrade visibility, it generally is true that “when...

In this chapter we report estimates of the external costs of transport in the United States.1 Generally, we cover road, rail, air, and water transport; passenger transport and freight transport; and congestion, accident, air pollution, climate change, noise, water pollution, and energy-security...

Every year, Americans drivers spend hundreds of billions of dollars on highway transportation. They pay for vehicles, maintenance, repair, fuel, lubricants, tires, parts, insurance, parking, tolls, registration, fees, and other items. These expenditures buy Americans considerable personal...

--We analyze the impact of the use of electric vehicles (EVs) energy consumption in general and petroleum consumption in particular. The analysis is conducted for sub-compact cars, small vans, and large vans for the years 1995 and 2010. We compare per-mile primary energy consumption of EVs and...

Personal non-monetary costs are those unpriced costs of motor-vehicle use that a person imposes on herself as a result of her decision to travel. The largest personal costs of motor-vehicle use are personal travel time in uncongested conditions and the risk of getting into an accident that...

In this Report, we seek to answer the question: “If the U.S. highway transportation sector did not use oil, how much would the U.S. Federal government reduce its military commitment in the Persian Gulf?†The analysis goes in four parts. First, we explain that the U.S. protects its...