The Transport Debate

Book excerpt: Responding to increased public awareness of transportation issues and the sustainability concerns they raise, The Transport Debate offers an accessible look at how we have arrived at the transportation systems we have today. Covering both local and global issues, Jon Shaw and Iain Docherty balance a celebration of the advantages that modern transportation systems have brought with a critical look at the many poor conceptions and executions of transportation policy. Centering their study around the notion of the journey, they follow the fictitious Smith family on a trip, documenting the many transportation issues they face and explaining how those issues have come about, what policy trade-offs were responsible for them, and what can be done to fix them.