Moving Violations: Automobiles, Experts, and Regulations in the United States by Lee Vinsel

Abstract

In both cases, regulatory action was preceded by a fundamental reframing of the basic problem, due to the emergence of a new field of research: impact biomechanics and the chemical analysis of smog. In combination with pressure from the emerging consumer and environmental movements, this led to the passage of landmark legislation (in 1966 and 1970, respectively) and the creation of new bureaucratic institutions tasked to enforce it: the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) and the Office of Mobile Sources of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). [...]to the oft-repeated stereotype of gratuitously Kafkaesque "red tape" stifling the creative vigor of free enterprise, however, he insists that regulation done right can be a highly efficient "technology of government," and even an innovative force in its own right—a way to "unleash creativity and channel the human capacity for problem solving" (p. 316, 318).