gasoline powered vehicles had many practical uses, and automobile production in the United States began in 1896 (8).
Foster discusses automotive engineering advances in the first half of the 20th Century, and brings up the problem of roads. Without new and better roads, automobiles had no place to go. He describes early efforts and issues in the building of adequate roads and the need for an interstate system of highways. The issue that arose from building a national highway system, according to Foster, is that by accommodating the automobile, mass transit would suffer. He cites urban planners warning that this would ôdestroy the living tissue of the cityö (15). On the other hand, key decision makers in the United States favored the dominance of the automobile because it was a major contributor to the economy. It proved a major contributor to traffic congestion, noise, air pollution and suburban sprawl as well.
Automobile use over the first half of the 20th Century grew in popularity, Foster says, because cars were practical and fast. Cars were useful not only to racing enthusiasts and the wealthy, but to farmers and country doctors. For the general public, the automobile represented ôa new sense of freedom,ö and created changes in how Americans experienced leisure (23).
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