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Automobiles in Growing Economies of the Developing World

Ralph Gakenheimer

Driving Miss Daisy Digitally

Joseph F. Coughlin: June 5, 2004; Running Time: 59:00

About the Lecture

About the Lecture

Automobiles in Growing Economies of the Developing World

A word of warning from inveterate traveler Ralph Gakenheimer: Never ride a bicycle around downtown Shanghai. The explosive growth of cars has resulted “in mayhem” for cyclists and pedestrians. In China, there are 1.8 bikes per family, yet municipal governments eager to encourage industrial growth repress bicycles in favor of cars. Air and noise pollution are increasing all over China, much of Asia, and India, as cities double in size every few decades, sprawl over surrounding countryside, and citizens flock to motorized transport. Gakenheimer encourages testing out “congestion pricing”— taxing the use of the densest roads at the most traveled times to regulate flow and create order; bus rapid transit systems to “help keep city centers alive;” and land use planning to contain the spread of cities over agricultural lands and natural resources.

Driving Miss Daisy Digitally

The good news, says Joseph Coughlin, is that Americans live longer. The bad news is we will have increasing difficulty getting around in cars. This is especially unfortunate because, as Coughlin has learned at the MIT AgeLab, senior citizens link driving to emotional and mental health. “If you feel well, have disposable income and have an education, you’re going to want to get out and do something,” says Coughlin. Greater numbers of Americans live beyond retirement age, and most are “safe drivers” in spite of such inevitable infirmities as reduced vision, impaired hearing, decreased strength and flexibility, and attention and perception deficits. But, says Coughlin, the auto industry designs its cars primarily for young people. He believes, “If cars are designed as they are today, the number of older adults who will be dying on American highways … will be the same as attributed to alcohol-related deaths.” Instead of gadget-laden speedsters, Coughlin imagines vehicles where innovative technology supports rather than confounds the older driver.

Lecture Details

Location: Kresge Auditorium

“Innovations (for older drivers) are going into high-end platforms, like the Lexus and Cadillac. The first guinea pigs will be people who have 40 to 50 years of driving the old way.”

Joseph F. Coughlin

About the Speakers

Ralph Gakenheimer

Professor of Urban Planning

Ralph Gakenheimer specializes in urban transportation planning, infrastructure, and urban development planning in developing countries and the United States. His current research involves changing urban conditions in China resulting from increases in motorization and increased income. He is co-director of Mobility and Air Quality in the Mexico City Metropolitan Area, and is a Developing Countries Specialist in the MIT Cooperative Mobility Program. He was chair of the American Planning Association, International Division and was editor of the Journal of the American Planning Association. He headed a project on strategic planning for the Bangkok Metropolitan Area, and conducted research regarding real estate holding companies in Middle Eastern downtown redevelopment.

Joseph F. Coughlin

Director, MIT AgeLab
Engineering Systems Division

Joseph F. Coughlin is founding Director of the MIT AgeLab - a partnership between MIT, industry and the aging community to engineer innovative approaches and technologies to improve the quality of life of older adults and those that care for them. Coughlin’s research has been featured in Business Week, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, Le Monde and ABC News, CBS Evening News, NBC Nightly News and CNN World. He has assisted numerous organizations including AT&T, IBM and the American Business Collaborative for Quality Dependent Care, Johnson & Johnson, and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He teaches strategic management and public policy within the MIT School of Engineering's Engineering Systems Division.

About the Host