PRAGOTI

Chirashree pointed me to an old article by Paul Sweezy on the political economy of the automobile--"Cars and Cities"--published in the Monthly Review in 1973.

Discussing the problems of pollution, congestion and marginalization that cars brough to the city, Sweezy concludes that "while I believe certain palliatives to be possible, at least in principle, within the framework of the present monopoly capitalist system, I do not think that fundamental changes in the structure of cities and their relation to society as a whole can be effected without a radical change in the social order".

The article is worth reading not just as a fine piece of political economy but also as a bit of oral history, since Sweezy's generation was witness at first-hand to the changes brought about by automobilization.

If you want to know how things stand with respect to the car and city at present,  this report and this paper gives some figures for the US  and this paper provides a brief review of urban transport in India.