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August 2, 2000 10:22 AM, EDT

A new study puts a positive spin on the environmental and safety aspects of the fossil-fuel-powered truck and its kin.

“What would have been the effect on human health and the environment if cars and trucks hadn’t emerged as a replacement” for the horse and mule, asked researchers Joseph Bast and Jay Lehr of the Heartland Institute, a Chicago-based non-profit research organization. Bast is the institute’s president and Lehr is the science director.

“We would not have turned to trains for most of our transportation needs,” they assert, “first because they lack even the speed and flexibility of horses and mules for short tips, and second because the nation could not possible have afforded to build and operate train lines reaching all the areas where a surging population wanted to live, work and visit.”

Their report, “The Increasing Sustainability of Cars, Trucks and the Internal Combustion Engine,” was released at the end of June. Unlike studies discussing the soot and smog that combustion engines produce, the Heartland Report reminds readers that the mules and horses that the horseless carriage replaced also created pollution.

For the full story, see the July 31 print edition of Transport Topics. .