Environmental Externalities of Motor-Vehicle Use in the US

This paper reviews the methods, data, results, uses, and limitations of several recent studies of the external environmental damage costs of motor-vehicle use in the US. Although there remains considerable uncertainty in all stages of the damage-cost modeLling approach, the results can nevertheless enrich cost-benefit and pricing analyses. Towards these ends, estimates of external costs have been used in comparisons of the social costs of different transport technologies or modes, in evaluations of the trade-offs between different kinds of environmental impacts, and in analyses of motor-vehicle pricing and land-use policies.