A Call For A Car Alternative

A columnist issues a call for an alternative to the oil dependent, traffic-inducing automobile.

1 minute read

August 17, 2004, 1:00 PM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"The dirty little secret of urban planning is that traffic systems tend to behave like computer systems. Create new capacity and it will be used; create even more capacity, and it will be used even more... Ah, but those cars! They swarm like locusts in a field of wheat...

Let's put our heads together with the Wall Street and Detroit crowd and see if we can come up with a logical alternative to the car... Maybe you drive it sometimes; other times maybe it becomes part of a train. Perhaps sometimes it runs on pavement, other times on elevated ramps, or even subsurface. Sometimes you drive it, other times you surrender control to automated guidance."

Thanks to Laura Kranz

Monday, August 16, 2004 in MetroWest Daily News

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I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

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