When motor vehicles were a new technology a century ago, their development was a push-pull affair. Innovators and investors drove the fledgling industry while an expanding and enthusiastic group of motorists absorbed its products. A paucity of good roads and services initially limited car use, but road building after World War I fueled demand for cars and trucks. Early discussions of regulation concerned the obvious nuisances and hazards of these new machines. These basic forces: automotive innovation and market demand, fueled by an expanding road system and shaped by minimal regulation, have transformed the twentieth century.
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