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Essay / The Impact of the Automobile and Society on American Society
Before cars, people traveled by carriage, horse, streetcar, and bicycle. These means of transportation were not as efficient as the car, so transportation over long distances was not entirely facilitated. This is why automobile innovation played such an important role in the creation of suburbs and other areas of life outside the city. Transportation was made easier and citizens could finally afford to leave the dirty, overcrowded city and leave their quiet country homes, free from the disorder of people and disease. Since World War II, cars have completely reshaped cities and their near suburbs (Chafe). The automobile industry, primarily through cars, not only replaced the rail service that previously existed and much of the pedestrian popularity, but this industry also greatly influenced the growth of urban areas lacking any type of transportation service . In the past, railways directly connected urban centers to their outskirts and suburbs before the invention of the automobile. In the past, city streets generally followed the patterns of streetcars and the transportation routes and roads that preceded them. However, it was only a matter of time before cars exceeded the capacity of the old roads. A journalist from