Safety

Traffic collisions are the largest cause of injury-related deaths worldwide.Mary Ward became one of the first documented car fatalities in 1869 in Parsonstown, Ireland, and Henry Bliss one of the US's first pedestrian car casualties in 1899 in New York City.There are now standard tests for safety in new cars, such as the Euro and US NCAP tests, and insurance-industry-backed tests by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS). However, not all such tests consider the safety of people outside the car, such as drivers of other cars, pedestrians and cyclists.

Costs and benefits

Car production and use has a large number of environmental impacts: it causes local air pollution plastic pollution and contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and climate change. Cars and vans caused 10% of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2022. As of 2023, electric cars produce about half the emissions over their lifetime as diesel and petrol cars. This is set to improve as countries produce more of their electricity from low-carbon sources. Cars consume almost a quarter of world oil production as of 2019. Cities planned around cars are often less dense, which leads to further emissions, as they are less walkable for instance. A growing demand for large SUVs is driving up emissions from cars.

Cars are a major cause of air pollution, which stems from exhaust gas in diesel and petrol cars and from dust from brakes, tyres, and road wear. Electric cars do not produce tailpipe emissions, but are generally heavier and therefore produce slightly more particulate matter.Heavy metals and microplastics (from tyres) are also released into the environment, during production, use and at the end of life. Mining related to car manufactoring and oil spills both cause water pollution.

Animals and plants are often negatively affected by cars via habitat destruction and fragmentation from the road network and pollution. Animals are also killed every year on roads by cars, referred to as roadkill. More recent road developments are including significant environmental mitigation in their designs, such as green bridges (designed to allow wildlife crossings) and creating wildlife corridors.

Governments use fiscal policies, such as road tax, to discourage the purchase and use of more polluting cars;Vehicle emission standards ban the sale of new highly pollution cars. Many countries plan to stop selling fossil cars altogher between 2025 and 2050. Various cities have implemented low-emission zones, banning old fossil fuel and Amsterdam is planning to ban fossil fuel cars completely. Some cities make it easier for people to choose other forms of transport, such as cycling. Many Chinese cities limit licensing of fossil fuel cars