Fr. 188.00

The Economics of Railroad Safety

English · Hardback

Shipping usually within 2 to 3 weeks (title will be printed to order)

Description

Read more

The American public has a fascination with railroad wrecks that goes back a long way. One hundred years ago, staged railroad accidents were popular events. At the Iowa State fair in 1896, 89,000 people paid $20 each, at current prices, to see two trains, throttles wide open, collide with each other. "Head-on Joe" Connolly made a business out of "cornfield meets" holding seventy-three events in thirty-six years. Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents. A "train wreck" has also entered the popular vocabulary in a most unusual way. When political manoeuvering leads to failure to pass the federal budget, and a shutdown is likely of government services, this is widely called a "train wreck. " In business and team sports, bumbling and lack of coordination leading to a spectacular and public failure to perform is also called "causing a train wreck. " A person or organization who is disorganized may be labelled a "train wreck. " It is therefore not surprising that the public perception of the safety of railroads centers on images of twisted metal and burning tank cars, and a general feeling that these events occur quite often. After a series of railroad accidents, such as occurred in the winter of 1996 or the summer of 1997, there are inevitable calls that government "should do something.

List of contents

1 Setting the Scene.- 2 Historical Trends.- 3 Public Policy.- 4 How Safe are American Railroads?.- 5 Risk Evaluation.- 6 The Story So Far.- 7 Economic Theory of Bilateral Accidents.- 8 Highway Grade Crossings.- 9 Trespassers.- 10 Occupational Injuries.- 11 Benchmark Levels of Operational Safety.- 12 Market Power.- 13 Imperfect Information.- 14 Customer Rationality.- 15 Railroad Myopia 115.- 16 Externalities.- 17 Non-Regulatory Responses.- 18 Federal Safety Regulations.- 19 Evaluation of Regulations.- 20 A New Era for Safety Regulation.- 21 The Way Forward.- References.

Summary

Picture books of train wrecks do good business presumably because a train wreck can guarantee a spectacular destruction of property without the messy loss of life associated with aircraft accidents.

Product details

Authors Ian Savage
Publisher Springer Netherlands
 
Languages English
Product format Hardback
Released 14.04.2009
 
EAN 9780792382195
ISBN 978-0-7923-8219-5
No. of pages 232
Weight 535 g
Illustrations XIII, 232 p.
Series Transportation Research, Economics and Policy
Transportation Research, Economics and Policy
Subject Social sciences, law, business > Business > Economics

Customer reviews

No reviews have been written for this item yet. Write the first review and be helpful to other users when they decide on a purchase.

Write a review

Thumbs up or thumbs down? Write your own review.

For messages to CeDe.ch please use the contact form.

The input fields marked * are obligatory

By submitting this form you agree to our data privacy statement.