Description
Book SynopsisWas the electric car ever a viable competitor for the petrol one? This book examines the relationship of technology, society and environment to choice, policy and outcome in the history of American transportation.
Table of ContentsRescuing the alternatives to internal combustion: large technical systems, technological comptetition, and the burden of history
William C. Whitney, Albert A. Pope, Richard W. Meade, and the Electric Vehicle Company: semi-public electric vehicle transportation service, 1897-1912
Central stations and the electric vehicle industry: organizing to support electric vehicles, 1900-1925
The electric truck and the rise and fall of appropriate spheres
Infrastructure automobile touring, and the dynamics of automotive systems choice
Excursus: the accidents that never happened
The burden of history: expectations past and imperfect
Technological hybrids and the automobile system: from the electrified gas car to the electrification of the automobile
Industrial ecology and the future of the automobile: large-scale technological systems, technological choice, and public policy
