Unarresting mobility: A conversation with Charles T. Brown

This review is part of a special collaboration between Planetizen and Booked on Planning, a biweekly podcast where AICP planner Stephanie Rouse and Jennifer Hiatt chat with authors of the latest books shaping urban planning today. Listen to the episode with today’s author in the player below. 

The experience of moving around cities is not the same for everyone and is constrained by systemic racism in four areas: policing, planning, polity, and policy. Entire neighborhoods are missing important transportation infrastructure making it physically unsafe to move around. Charles T. Brown focuses on these disparities specifically for Black people in America in his book “Arrested Mobility: Overcoming the Threat to Black Movement.” 

Mobility, “the ability to move freely, safely, and confidently through one’s city — whether in a car, on foot, by bike, by e-scooter, or by public transit,” should be a basic right for all residents but remains untrue for most marginalized communities. At its core, the issue stems from individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism creating a structure of systemic oppression. Brown illustrates these issues in a diagram showing a White Road versus Black Road, returning to it throughout the book.

Diagram from “Arrested Mobility” illustrating the disparate experiences between traveling as a Black person versus a white person. Illustrated by Tom Grillo, provided by Charles T. Brown.

The book dives briefly into a history that led to the current transportation climate, including urban renewal policies and zoning regulations used as a tool for segregation, turning to how the profession of urban planning and design has contributed to the problem. 

Brown highlights well-documented racial zoning foundations, while also diving into less-discussed topics like crime prevention through environmental design and issues of design bias. One glaring example Brown highlights: the reflectance levels in lighting design standards typically set by white professionals do not account for dark skin, which amplifies safety issues for Black individuals.

The most important question the book asks is: what will it take to solve inequity in mobility? Brown writes that “Un-arresting mobility involves deemphasizing enforcement, rethinking how we design and invest in our communities, and acknowledging the role of systemic racism in urban planning, policymaking, and the policing of our communities.” 

He argues that the field of urban planning is working on the first step — acknowledgement — but that changes in policymaking and policing are slower to manifest. A starting point for this work is to decriminalize mobility by using a targeted universalism strategy — an approach that prioritizes the problems experienced by the most marginalized people. One of the most common interventions to decriminalize mobility is removing policing from mobility enforcement to avoid arrests for minor infractions that may be necessary in order to get around a disinvested community.

The book ends with a series of case studies from communities engaging in the work of unarresting mobility in positive ways. One project in development is The Go Hub in North Lawndale, West Chicago, which “addresses arrested mobility by fostering safe, inclusive, and equitable transportation opportunities for Black and Brown residents.” 

No one-size-fits-all solution will work everywhere, but starting the conversation, which is what this quick read does, is an important beginning. “Arrested Mobility” provides opportunities to reflect on your own work and begin to implement change.