Autos, Transit, and Cities

The authors recommend that future urban transportation must not only be produced by improvement of public transit within clear guidelines but also must give a prominent, although refined, role to the automobile. Following a brief review of the way in which urban travel patterns and systems have evolved, the authors continue by describing how government policies were misdirected as they aimed at increasing the effectiveness of mass transportation. They discuss not only buses, commuter trains and rapid transit, but the less traditional modes such as vanpooling and dial-a-ride, indicating where public policy went wrong and how to make future public transportation more effective. The authors then turn to the automobile's impact on land use, energy, air pollution and aesthetics. They discuss small-car safety and transportation of the disadvantaged, offering suggestions for dealing with these problems. It is concluded that many transportation problems can be solved only by adapting the automobile to meet the increasingly stringent requirements of urban life.