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The Books





Quotes of the Quarter

Rail and the City,

(reviewed in this issue) Roxanne Warren, in







Many villages in Nepal do not have car access, and the roads are mostly for walking, as here in Thecho.

2013 J.H Crawford



Feature Article

Developing a Plan for Carfree Villages in Nepal

By Dristy Shrestha

Carfree Villages for Nepal



Scattered small houses some distance from one another in a village near Bhaktapur

2014 J.H. Crawford



Introduction

Investment in development is largely driven by economic return and has caused the loss of a bright future for the rural areas, further accelerating urban migration. This in turn gives rise to the poorest city slums, chaotic areas of unplanned and uncontrolled development. With dreams of prosperity unfulfilled in the capital city, people leave the nation to live their dreams, draining the nation of some of its best and brightest young people.



Pedestrian roads and mud trials in a village

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Existing Carfree Villages in Nepal

Cars are considered as a normal part of development, and thus little consideration is given to preserving the desirable attributes of the village. Auto-centric development therefore holds sway in villages even though very few villagers can afford cars and not many more can afford motorcycles. Recent data shows that most of the Village Development Committees (VDCs, which manage individual villages) in villages that are converted to municipalities tend to adopt auto-centric development.

Car Trouble in the Western World

Rural Villages in Nepal

Nepali villages are traditionally self-sufficient settlements. However, the exposure to national and international markets is gradually making them resemble suburbs, and the global culture of consumerism now has large influences, to the cost of traditional culture.



Modern, large concrete buildings rising in the middle of a traditional village near Changu Narayan.

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Villages vs. Cities



Active social life in a town

2014 J.H. Crawford



In a village, people know their surroundings intimately and also know their neighbors well. This tends to lead to a great spirit of cooperation. Roads are safer for walking and cycling because there is little motorized traffic. Life is simple, and money plays a small role in day-to-day life. Shopkeepers and customers in a village are neighbors, so the quality of goods must meet local expectations. Village life is close to nature, but modern medical care is usually distant, with the result that villagers tend to use traditional medicines and practices.

The basic necessities in rural villages are mostly of local origin, whereas in cities these necessities usually come from a considerable distance. Furthermore, the expectation of enjoying international standards of living among city dwellers requires the import of many goods. In the urban areas, most people are strangers, so in order to show high status, people want to show off expensive goods. In villages, the life is much cheaper.

The rise of consumerism and the influence of modern international values tends to encourage people to adopt consumerism similar to that in developed nations.



A farmer growing organic vegetables by hand in small field

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Sustainability

In terms of consumption, villages in Nepal tend to be more sustainable than cities. Local foods are mostly not packaged, so packaging waste is far less than for the processed foods often consumed in cities. Most consumer products are reused or repaired, which produces less waste. In cities, the wide availability of products also makes it convenient to buy new products rather than repair existing ones.



Drying grain in sun in the Newari town of Bungamati

2014 J.H. Crawford



Villages in Nepal still use very little energy because electricity and bottled gas are not available in many villages. Water is supplied from mostly local sources. Most villagers are farmers and compost their waste products for application to their fields. So the remote villages are highly sustainable in terms of waste management, energy, water supply, and drainage. Villages do use petroleum to power buses and motorcycles, and sometimes the distances people have to travel are quite considerable.

Disadvantages such as poor transport, inferior education, and limited medical care may be in part offset by the use of motorcycles, but they harm the peace and safety of the village, especially if many families have motorbikes.

Nepal is the least urbanized nation in South Asia but has the highest rate of urbanization. This poses serious challenges to municipal authorities, as they have relatively little experience with urban planning at a time when demand for urban expansion is exceptionally high. This explosive urbanization affects even some small towns. Thus, villages and towns are losing their essence because of modern development practices, unchecked motorization, large shopping centers, and unregulated industries.

Village Structure of Nepal

Examples of Newari settlements are Kathmandu, Bhaktapur, Kirtipur, and Lalitpur. Most other ethnic groups have traditionally lived in isolated settlements with a dispersed pattern of habitation and a distinctly rural character.



Newaris traditionally carry goods on a shoulder pole.

2014 Bansidhar Sainju





A women carrying a load from the farm

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Freight Management and Agriculture



The Arniko Highway at the edge of Bhaktapur

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Vehicle-Centric Design

In the comparatively unusual case that a road is asphalted, vehicle speeds rise considerably, with a consequent increase in fatal collisions between vehicles and pedestrians or bicyclists. With the land near the roads having the best commercial exposure, many people are pushed away from the road to make room for road-front businesses. Few local people understand the consequences of living near heavy traffic, and they must be informed of the risks. Today, they lobby the municipality and sacrifice their land in order to bring roads in front of their houses because of the financial benefits of road-front locations.

Unaffordable Lifestyle in Villages

Passenger Transport

The first mechanized transport used to move goods from lowland Nepal to the uplands actually consisted of ropeways (funiculars). In some circumstances, it may be an efficient alternative to building roads, but the economics will be challenging in sparsely settled areas. In the mountainous regions, road construction is extremely expensive even for simple one-lane dirt roads that are often washed away during the monsoon. The Department of Roads is already concerned that it is unable to maintain the road network, much of which was constructed on an ad-hoc basis and not to any engineering standard. These substandard roads are difficult to maintain, and few of them can be traversed during the mud season. All of this makes the transport of agriculture products to market a challenging problem.



Infrastructure development for housing on the outskirts of Kathmandu

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



Why Carfree Villages Are Essential

Villages and Their Relationship to the Road

Villages traversed by a road

Villages with a road passing close by

Villages at the end of a road

Villages located far from a road



Schematic drawing of the four types of rural villages with respect to roads. Clockwise from top left: road passing through, road running adjacent, road passing near, road terminating at village. Red indicates the commercial and transport area of the village.

Improving economic conditions is more difficult in the first case, especially for communities more than an hour's walk from a road, of which there are still quite a few. These villages are at least protected from the effects of motorized transport, but their economic prospects will remain poor unless they are connected to the national transport network.

Villages traversed by a road, especially if there is much traffic on it, will suffer from declining quality of life. These villages cannot even ban traffic through their village, as other settlements further along the road would not permit it. In this circumstance, the only workable alternative is to transform the situation to the third case.

If a village has a road that passes close by but not through the village, its transport situation can be quite good while the impact of transport on the village itself is held to a minimum. The ideal case is one in which the road passes a few hundred meters away from the settled area, with a short spur leading to a parking area at the edge of the village.

Finally, the case of a village located the end of the road is essentially the same as the case of a village located on a short spur. Transport is available at the edge of the village, but traffic would not be allowed into the village itself, holding traffic impacts to a low level.

In all cases except those where a road passes through the village, it is a fairly simple matter to reorganize the village as a carfree area. Locals need to agree that all motorized vehicles will be kept out of the built-up area and confined to the adjacent parking area. In this way, a high quality of life can be enjoyed in the village, and the prospects for modest economic growth are quite good. The transport of agricultural surpluses to market is simple to arrange and relatively efficient.

A shift to the carfree model makes street space available for small parks, fountains, shops, sidewalk cafés, benches, and so forth. All this depends on finding an effective way to keep motorized vehicles out of the inhabited areas.

In Nepal, motorcycles will be the greatest challenge, as they can pass through very narrow streets and even negotiate shallow steps. In villages, social enforcement is probably the only effective method. In Nepal, it is customary to bring motorcycles inside the house at night as protection against theft. Motorcycle owners will want a secure parking area at the village edge if they are to feel comfortable leaving their machines outside the house.

Villages with Appreciable Car Traffic Today

The Terai is the flat region along the southern border of Nepal. This area was settle only comparatively recently, following the control of mosquito-borne disease. In many of the villages of this area, public transport has yet to arrive, and large numbers of motorcycles have already been bought. In most cases, they have been admitted to the village without much consideration, as most people want them; they are considered the only practical means of transport aside from walking.



More and more motorcycles are appearing in villages.

2014 Bansidhar Sainju



The Terai villages will be more difficult to convert to the carfree model, even if the road does not penetrate the settled area. The settlements in Terai tend to be more scattered. This is in part because the land is flat, unlike in the uplands of Nepal. Furthermore, the Terai was not settled by Newaris, so their settlements generally lack the compact arrangements of the Newari cities and towns. Most farms are fairly large, each with its own farmhouse. The feasibility of public transport in the Terai is thereby reduced as the low density makes the provision of good service uneconomical. The extremely high temperatures during the hot season in this area are a barrier to non-motorized transport. It is therefore likely that reaching agreement about parking motorcycles at the edge of the village will be difficult. As in other cases, it will be necessary to stress the economic, social, health, and aesthetic costs of allowing motorcycles into the village.

Carfree Theory as Related to Towns and Villages

For our purposes, the distinction is easy. If the city is small enough to walk across in less than about 20 minutes, it may be considered small. If some form of mechanized internal transport is required by virtue of long walking distances, it may be considered large. The matter of large cities has long been taken up at Carfree.com and in Carfree Cities by J.H. Crawford and will not be repeated here.

However, the walkable districts proposed in Carfree Cities and further described in Crawford's Carfree Design Manual can be the basis for carfree village design. The one significant change is that vehicles are brought up to the edge of the village, rather than being kept in parking garages at a distance of several kilometers. The designs proposed in Crawford's work presume the presence of a transport halt at the center of the district. In the case of villages, it may not be sensible to centralize the most important functions but rather to locate them close to the village parking area. The decision will be affected by local circumstances.

A further change is that the most desirable density of construction will probably be lower than the four stories proposed in Carfree Cities. As little as two stories can actually be sufficient, although the addition of an inhabited roof is usually desirable, which counts as "two-and-a-half" stories.

One other significant difference is that the districts in a carfree city are adjacent to one another, but carfree villages will be separated by a distance of kilometers. It will be a natural pattern for carfree villages to be linked fairly directly by road to the center of the region, as this is where specialized goods and services will be available.

Entirely New Villages

In other cases, developers may buy land within commuting distance of a city and attempt to build an entirely new village according to some central plan, with little or no input from the local people or those who might move into the village. Such a development is neither organic nor democratic, but may nevertheless occur.

Next Steps

If, however, the quality of life in regions distant from a nation's major cities is to be improved, it will be necessary to develop regional cities with populations ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000 where specialized education and medical care are available. These cities, if built anew, can follow quite directly the principles established in J.H. Crawford's work. If this is done, then these cities should themselves be attractive enough to deter some people from seeking their fortune in the megacities that are fast becoming unmanageable.

Dristy Shrestha lives in Kathmandu and is active in the carfree and bicycling movements. She is in charge of developing the theory and practice of carfree villages here at Carfree.com.

Ed. Note: Relocating to Bhaktapur made it possible to resume serious development of the knowledge regarding carfree life. Bhaktapur is surrounded by candidates for carfree conversion. We will continue to develop this work and publish it here in the years ahead.





News Bits

The links below will open in a new browser window or tab, depending on your browser; (Ctrl+click may behave differently):

Thanks to Debra Efroymson, Piper Hollier, Richard Risemberg, and Doug Salzmann for suggesting articles. Thanks to Bansidhar Sainju for production assistance. Thanks also to Piper Hollier for proofreading.



Top Stories

"At This Rate, The World Will Have To Cease All Carbon Emissions In 2040 To Stay Under 2°C"



" 'By 2040, world energy supply is divided into four almost equal parts: low-carbon sources (nuclear and renewables), oil, natural gas and coal,' according to the IEA report's press release. 'In the central scenario, the entire carbon budget allowed under a 2°C climate trajectory is consumed by 2040, highlighting the need for a comprehensive and ambitious agreement at the COP21 meeting in Paris in 2015." (ThinkProgress.org)

"New York City Mayor Unveils Plan To Reduce Carbon Emissions By 80 Percent"



The city's plan acknowledges that achieving an 80% reduction in emissions by 2050 won't be easy - either for buildings or for the rest of the city's emitters - but it does outline ways that the city plans to tackle its greenhouse gasses. (ThinkProgress.org)

"Fusion reactor concept could be cheaper than coal"



"Engineers have designed a concept for a fusion reactor that, when scaled up to the size of a large electrical power plant, would rival costs for a new coal-fired plant with similar electrical output." We have always thought that workable nuclear fusion would be a game changer, but there have been many false alarms over the years. Even if we have cheap, safe power from fusion, there are still many other good reasons to fix our cities. (ScienceDaily.com) See also: "Lockheed Martin Says It Will Have A Working Fusion Reactor In 10 Years - But Will It Matter?" and "Cold fusion reactor verified by third-party researchers, seems to have 1 million times the energy density of gasoline"

"U.S. Taxpayers Are Gouged on Mass Transit Costs"



"American taxpayers will shell out many times what their counterparts in developed cities in Europe and Asia would pay. In the case of the Second Avenue line and other new rail infrastructure in New York City, they may have to pay five times as much." There have been whiffs of this scandal for years, but now it seems there's real evidence. (BloombergView.com)

"Down With Sustainable Development! Long Live Convivial Degrowth!"



We have never particularly cared for the term "degrowth," and "convivial degrowth" is awful. This is a shame, as the degrowth movement is pursuing true sustainability by the only means likely to achieve it: reducing the size of the economy, or at least the material sectors of the economy. It's time to come up with a better term. At least "sustainable development" is now taking some hits as one of history's great oxymorons. (Inter Press Service)

Urban Planning and Design

"What France Can Teach U.S. Cities About Transit Design"



"There's an awful lot that U.S. cities should learn as soon as possible about the way the French design their transit networks. Whereas American light rail systems have had modest success and modern streetcar lines have questionable transit value, France operates 57 tram lines in 33 cities that together carry some 3 million passengers a day and create a fantastic balance of mobility options for urban and suburban residents alike - all built in the last 30 years." (CityLab.com)

"Car-free KL [Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia] once a month"



"As the morning mist lifts, Dataran DBKL (at KL City Hall) comes alive with Malaysians of all walks of life. They have travelled from far and wide to experience a morning in the city, without the hustle, bustle and fear of motorised vehicles. KL Car Free Mornings allow everyone to glide through the city, and explore the landmarks. . ." (TheStar.com)

"Need to Promote Walking, Cycling in Cities: Venkaiah Naidu"



" 'Huge increase in private vehicles in urban areas amounts to the rich misappropriating the limited urban space at the cost of the poor. This social exclusion should be addressed with better transport planning,' Naidu said, adding that walking and cycling need to be promoted in cities." (NewIndianExpress.com)

Car Trouble

"In Venezuelan capital, a 'plague' of motorcycles"



"The two-wheel invasion began about a decade ago with the arrival of Chinese-made motorcycles that sell for just a few hundred dollars, and has since exploded, causing Caracas residents to rant at the locust-like swarms of motorcycles that blow through red lights and ignore one-way traffic signs with impunity, becoming a serious public health and safety issue." Further, "Venezuela is the world's third-worst country for motor vehicle-related deaths with 37.2 per 100,000 inhabitants, according to a WHO global road safety study published this year." Doubtless, motorcycle use has a lot to do with the bad numbers. (BigStory.ap.org)

"Should we lower the speed limit?"



"The 30 MPH speed limit in urban areas was devised at a time when death on the roads was an accepted part of daily life. In 1930, before its introduction, more than 7,300 people died in road accidents. At that time there were just over 2 million vehicles on the road. It was a controversial move: speed signs were defaced and there was no shortage of irate drivers writing to the Times to protest." (TheGuardian.com)

"New Report Shows Mounting Evidence of Millennials' Shift Away from Driving"



"Millennials are trying to send a message to policy-makers: We want convenient, walkable neighborhoods with many options for how to get around. Unfortunately, many of our nation's transportation policies work to ensure just the opposite result." (CommonDreams.org)

"France falls out of love with the car"



"Leading brands acknowledge the crisis in the perception of motor vehicles in Europe and, to a lesser extent, in the United States. Fortunately for them, consumers in Russia, China, India and Brazil, among others, see things differently." Unfortunately. . . (TheGuardian.com)

"Road deaths and serious injuries rise as experts fear safety cuts are to blame"



"While there remains a significant long-term decline in casualties and Britain's roads are among the safest in the world, there is absolutely no room for complacency. We are determined to do more to reduce these figures, working with the police and other agencies, such as promoting road awareness through our Think! campaign." (TheGuardian.com)

Climate Change

"What It Would Really Take to Reverse Climate Change"



Google's navel gazing leads to some interesting conclusions. The really, really bad news? We need to be taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere, not adding any more to it. Time for real change. Time for some "degrowth." (IEEE.org)

"Six Myths About Climate Change that Liberals Rarely Question"



The six myths: Liberals Are Not In Denial



Republicans are Still More to Blame



Renewable Energy Can Replace Fossil Fuels



The Coming Knowledge Economy Will be a Low-Energy Economy



We can Reverse Global Warming Without Changing our Current Lifestyles



There is Nothing I Can Do If you a Democrat and are still breathing, better read this. (Resilience.org)

"How climate change will impact South Asia - latest IPCC report"



"Releasing the consolidated summary for policymakers of the fifth assessment report of the IPCC, the scientists and economists also held out a ray of hope. 'Options are available to adapt to climate change and implementing stringent mitigations activities can ensure that the impacts of climate change remain within a manageable range, creating a brighter and more sustainable future.' " (TheThirdPole.net)

"New Study Details Alarming Acceleration In Sea Level Rise"



"We know from the last interglacial period that when temperatures were several degrees warmer than today there was a lot more water in the oceans, with levels around four to five meters higher than today," lead author Kurt Lambeck, a professor at Australian National University, told the Guardian. "The question is how fast that change occurs when you increase temperatures." (ThinkProgress.org)

"Newly-Released Study Underestimates The 'Worst-Case Scenario' For Sea Level Rise"



"This year we've seen multiple bombshell studies on the growing prospect for West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse - and similar findings that "Greenland will be far greater contributor to sea rise than expected." (ThinkProgress.org)

"Warmest oceans ever recorded"



"The 2014 global ocean warming is mostly due to the North Pacific, which has warmed far beyond any recorded value and has shifted hurricane tracks, weakened trade winds, and produced coral bleaching in the Hawaiian Islands." (ScienceDaily.com)

"Global warming has doubled risk of harsh winters in Eurasia, research finds"



"Climate change is heating the Arctic much faster than lower latitudes and the discovery that the chances of severe winters has already doubled shows that the impacts of global warming are not only a future threat. Melting Arctic ice has also been implicated in recent wet summers in the UK." (TheGuardian.co.uk)

Transport, Emissions, Etc.

"Confirmed: California Aquifers Contaminated With Billions Of Gallons of Fracking Wastewater"



"News of billions of gallons of fracking wastewater contaminating protected aquifers relied on by residents of the Central Valley for drinking water could not have come at a worse time." Most of this technology would go away if its external costs were charged back to the polluter. (DesmogBlog.com)

"Methane Leaks Wipe Out Any Climate Benefit Of Fracking, Satellite Observations Confirm"



"The new study used satellites to look at actual 'methane emissions for two of the fastest growing production regions in the United States, the Bakken and Eagle Ford formations,' between the periods 2006-2008 and 2009-2011. They found leakages rates of 10.1% and 9.1% respectively." (ThinkProgress.org)

"Drilling Deeper: New Report Casts Doubt on Fracking Production Numbers"



"By 2040, production rates from the Bakken Shale and Eagle Ford Shale will be less than a tenth of that projected by the Energy Department." Further, "The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale oil basins measured for the report range from an astounding 60% to 91%. . . . This translates to 43% to 64% of their estimated ultimate recovery dug out during the first three years of the well's existence." (DesmogBlog.com)

"Drilling Deeper: New Report Casts Doubt on Fracking Production Numbers"



"The three year average well decline rates for the seven shale oil basins measured for the report range from an astounding 60-percent to 91-percent. That means over those three years, the amount of oil coming out of the wells decreases by that percentage. This translates to 43-percent to 64-percent of their estimated ultimate recovery dug out during the first three years of the well's existence." (DesmogBlog.com)

"EU agrees to cut emissions by 40% by 2030"



"EU Council President Herman van Rompuy called the package "ambitious and cost-effective", and said it would cement the EU's global authority in tackling climate change. The deal will be the central pillar of EU climate policy going into next year's UN summit in Paris, where another attempt to clinch a global deal on emissions reductions is likely to be made." Don't get too excited - it may be mostly smoke-and-mirrors. (fortune.com)

"Carbon Fee Bill Introduced in the Senate"



"The American Opportunity Carbon Fee Act would attempt to restore some justice in factoring those [externalized] costs. It would also assess a fee for other greenhouse gas emissions in addition to carbon, but only on the largest polluters who emit more than 25,000 tons a year. And it proposes a tariff on products from countries that don't price carbon, in order not to put U.S. businesses at a competitive disadvantage. The bill would level the playing field for clean technologies like wind and solar to compete with dirty energy sources." The bill was introduced by a Senator with the convenient name "Whitehouse." (CommonDreams.org)

"India air pollution 'cutting crop yields by almost half' "



"Air pollution in India has become so severe that yields of crops are being cut by almost half, scientists have found. Researchers analysed yields for wheat and rice alongside pollution data, and concluded significant decreases in yield could be attributed to two air pollutants, black carbon and ground level ozone. The finding has implications for global food security as India is a major rice exporter." (TheGuardian.com)

"Study: Children exposed to high levels of pollution five times more likely to have ADHD"



"Scientists have previously linked high exposure to PAHs in the womb with a number of other childhood problems, including developmental delays, reduced IQ and symptoms of anxiety and depression. It has also been linked to cancer." (WashingtonPost.com)





Book Review



Rail and the City:

Shrinking Our Carbon Footprint While Reimagining Urban Space Roxanne Warren MIT Press, 2014 311 pages





Roxanne Warren has written a comprehensive examination of rail and its supporting infrastructure, urban planning, energy, and social effects as they affect cities. The book does not specifically discuss carfree cities but does refer frequently to pedestrian zones and notes that these have generally been successful in the places where they have been tried.

The reader should be aware that this book is written from an American perspective despite making widespread use of examples from around the world, especially Europe. Warren laments that much of the rest of the world is rapidly following the American model, with dire effects to be expected and, indeed, already being seen.

Warren makes no bones about the origins of the current American dilemma: the problems arose because of decisions made in the mid-20th century that deliberately supported the motorization of the USA. The economic impacts of these decisions are considered in a modern context. The destruction of America's extensive streetcar network is deplored. Much consideration is given to the dispersed patterns of settlement that have been routinely applied across almost all of the USA. She is one of comparatively few writers who understand the dramatic effects of devoting so much land to parking and highways. In fact, parking and its relationship to transit-oriented development get a full chapter. "Free" parking dramatically increases the costs of real estate development and prices most new construction out of reach of the middle class.

Americans are willing to walk only pathetically short distances. It seems that 500 feet (150 meters, two minutes) is about as far as most Americans are willing to walk; only 20% will walk 1000 feet (300 meters, four minutes).

The difficulty of serving dispersed areas with public transport is considered realistically, and it is seen that bicycles are an essential part of fixing transport in the USA. She sees no way to correct the problems in US cities without radically changing infrastructure funding to favor public transport modes.

She is quick to point out how real estate values rise in areas served by rail systems.

The chapter that considers rail as a transit choice is central to the book and appropriately long. It begins with a history of passenger rail service in the USA. Warren then turns to the unique advantages of rail systems for high-capacity service. This includes a consideration of the aesthetic impacts of rail as compared to other modes. Bus Rapid Transit is considered, and its shortcoming are discussed, including its greater land take as compared to higher-capacity rail alternatives.

Considerable attention is devoted to the street-running light-rail alternative to buses on the one hand and grade-separated modes on the other hand. This is a realistic discussion, not one written by a devotee of metro systems, which are in most cases too expensive for cities that might want them. She also considers the extraordinary metro-building programs in large Chinese cities. These are being built despite the current Chinese turn away from bicycles towards private cars, which she views as unsustainable.

There is a discussion of high-speed rail (HSR), particularly in the context of a replacement for short-haul commercial aviation. I used to share Warren's enthusiasm for HSR, and it is indeed a remarkable technology, but I have come to think that trains should rarely run much faster than about 125 MPH (200 km/hr). There are a number of reasons I believe this, but cost and energy consumption are chief among them. The way to reduce flying is not to speed up rail but to adequately and fairly tax carbon emissions from all modes.

There is also a good discussion of automated urban rail systems, and, again, a realistic assessment of their suitability, capacity, land take, and cost. The point is made that capital costs may be very high, but operating costs are much reduced, and considerable operational flexibility is gained, to the benefit of the rider. So-called Personal Rapid Transit gets a very harsh look, which accords with my own assessment of its practicality. Most important, perhaps, is that she does not lose sight of the importance of the relationship between the street and an elevated guideway. It is for this reason that she applauds the decision in many smaller French cities to deploy human-operated, street-running light rail systems. These can, as she points out, be made to operate without the expensive and unsightly catenary systems normally used to provide electricity to the vehicles.

A chapter is devoted to the matter of accessing rail systems. It is all very well and good to build them, but if they are too difficult or unpleasant to access on foot or by bicycle, they will either be underutilized or the focal point for a flood of cars bringing riders to the station. The main point is that the land near transit halts is the most valuable in the city and should not be devoted to cars. With park-and-ride, total automotive air pollution is reduced only slightly. This point has been lost on many transit operators in the USA. The best means of access is, of course, on foot, and every effort should be turned to making this option the most attractive. The dangers of walking and cycling in the USA receive some much-needed attention.

Another reason to pay close attention to transit access is financial. The economic feasibility of transit depends heavily on the ridership, and transit that is quick, pleasant, and easy to access will be used much more than transit that is slow and dangerous to reach. The city of Freiburg, Germany, scores very well on these points, and it recovers 90% of its operating costs from fares, an exceptionally high percentage in Western nations.

For a book ostensibly focused on rail, urban planning issues receive a surprising amount of attention. "Complete streets," cycling, and walking all come in for careful consideration. European pedestrian zones also get plenty of attention, although Warren seems to have missed the changes taking place in northern Spain, which are quite wonderful (and the subject of a number of my videos). Bike sharing systems are taken up and even the "backlash" against cycling. The particular issues of electric bikes are also considered in a most sensible light. Small cars are also considered briefly, along with the effects of speed on safety, which actually gets its own chapter. Warren has done her research and discovered the intense early opposition to speeding motorists, which vanished in the wake of whitewashing campaigns by motoring interests. The 20 MPH zone comes in for considerable discussion.

Another chapter is devoted to urban planning for pedestrian- and transit-oriented cities. This is a welcome focus on the need for human-friendly living and working environments. The city of Freiburg is considered in detail, including some revealing photographs of the changes in that city once cars lost their preferential treatment and were relegated to a secondary role in large parts of the city. The carfree Vauban district is examined quite closely. One important point in Vauban was that car parking was unbundled from housing, which strongly discouraged car ownership, with only about 20% of families now owning a car. It had the further effect of making housing much more affordable for those without a car. The importance of involving future residents early in the process is stressed. The issue of gentrification is also addressed.

In the American context, the feasibility of taking streets back from cars gets some much-needed attention. It seems that this can be accomplished for surprisingly small amounts of money, and that the change can save neighborhoods in steep decline. One of the troubling footnotes in history, the failure of most of the 200 pedestrian malls established in the USA around 1970, is taken up at length. The few survivors, however, are central attractions in their cities.

New York's proposed 42nd street light rail project is taken up at length, as Warren is closely involved in this project. This section is well illustrated and entirely in accordance with my own views of what should be done in Manhattan. The importance of green space is mentioned, using the example of Manhattan's Bryant Park, a gem that was once befouled and unused and now restored to glory.

There is a serious error in Chapter 7, one that is all too commonly made. Warren states, "A sustained glut of inexpensive natural gas could actually short-circuit the prospects for new investments in wind and solar power - which have no emissions at all. . ." It is true that these sources produce no day-to-day emissions, but their construction and installation require a great deal of energy, and most of this comes from conventional sources. The fallacy that there is a sort of free lunch with renewables is widely held and a matter that needs serious debunking. There are also secondary costs from these sources, such as bird strikes by windmills, that are rarely taken into account.

The remainder of Chapter 7 is a fairly sensible look at long-term energy prospects, including the question of politics and economics. The fuel-vs-food controversy related to corn-based ethanol production is considered. The matter of equitable and effective taxation of vehicle use also comes in for attention.

Warren concludes with four basic steps to take:

Eliminate free car parking and requirements for minimum amounts of car parking.

Invert road priorities, giving priority to pedestrians.

Develop comprehensive transit networks at all scales from local to national.

Develop transit oriented communities within existing urban areas.

In short, this is a useful book, especially for people who need a broad oversight of transport issues and climate change. I would, of course, have preferred more emphasis on carfree alternatives, but there is a good deal of it to be found in the book. The writing is straight forward and largely free of jargon. It would be good to put a copy in the hands of local politicians dealing with transit and sustainability issues in your city.

There are, as is common today, too many typographic errors, for instance "s[eed" for "speed," an error that should have been caught by simple spell checking. There are a few technical errors with incorrect use of units (watts for watt-hours, for instance), but the book is generally clean and the illustrations serviceable.

In sum, this book is a very useful overview of the issue of sustainability in cities and the relationships between transit, energy, urban form, and transport priorities. It can usefully be put into the hands of public officials.



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