Transport, Mobility, and the Production of Urban Space


Book Description

The contemporary urban experience is defined by flow and structured by circulating people, objects, and energy. Geographers have long provided key insights into transportation systems. But today, concerns for social justice and sustainability motivate new, critical approaches to mobilities. Reimagining the city prompts an important question: How best to rethink urban geographies of transport and mobility? This original book explores connections – in theory and practice – between transport geographies and "new mobilities" in the production of urban space. It provides a broad introduction to intersecting perspectives of urban geography, transport geography, and mobilities studies on urban "places of flows." Diverse, international, and leading-edge contributions reinterpret everyday intersections as nodes, urban corridors as links, cities and regions as networks, and the discourses and imaginaries that frame the politics and experiences of mobility. The chapters illuminate nearly all aspects of urban transport, from street regulation and roadway planning, intended and "subversive" practices of car and truck drivers, planning and promotion of mass transit investments, and the restructuring of freight and logistics networks. Together these offer a unique and important contribution for social scientists, planners, and others interested in the politics of the city on the move.




The Great Neighborhood Book


Book Description

Abandoned lots and litter-strewn pathways, or rows of green beans and pockets of wildflowers? Graffiti-marked walls and desolate bus stops, or shady refuges and comfortable seating? What transforms a dingy, inhospitable area into a dynamic gathering place? How do individuals take back their neighborhood? Neighborhoods decline when the people who live there lose their connection and no longer feel part of their community. Recapturing that sense of belonging and pride of place can be as simple as planting a civic garden or placing some benches in a park. The Great Neighborhood Book explains how most struggling communities can be revived, not by vast infusions of cash, not by government, but by the people who live there. The author addresses such challenges as traffic control, crime, comfort and safety, and developing economic vitality. Using a technique called "placemaking"-- the process of transforming public space -- this exciting guide offers inspiring real-life examples that show the magic that happens when individuals take small steps, and motivate others to make change. This book will motivate not only neighborhood activists and concerned citizens but also urban planners, developers and policy-makers.




Volume 3: Public Space and Mobility


Book Description

This international volume explores the transformations of public space and public transport in response to COVID-19, both those resulting from official governmental regulations and from everyday practices of urban citizens. The contributors discuss how the virus made urban inequalities clearer, and redefined public spaces in the “new normal”.




A World of Strangers


Book Description

In traditional human societies, the stranger was a threat, to be disarmed at once by an act of force or by a ritual of hospitality. Under no conditions could a stranger be ignored or taken for granted. Yet in all great cities today, human beings seem to live out their entire lives in a world of strangers. How did it become possible for millions of people to do this? How is city life possible? The unique value of A World of Strangers lies in Loflands expert use of rich historical and anthropological sources to answer these questions. She demonstrates that a potentially chaotic and meaningless world of strangers was transformed into a knowable and predictable world of strangers by the same mechanism humans always use to make their world livable: it was ordered. Lofland offers a brilliant analysis of the various devices used at different times in history to create social and psychological order in cities, concluding with an analysis of the contemporary city, in which the location of the encounter between strangers has come to replace personal appearance as a means of evaluating others. Lofland also describes how city people initially learn and then act upon the ordering principles dominant in their society. A World of Strangers is a wonderfully wise and readable account of how we have come to live as we do.




Urban Transport XXVI


Book Description

A continuous requirement for better urban transport systems and the need for a healthier environment has resulted in an increasing demand for new solutions. Innovative systems, new approaches and original ideas need to be thoroughly tested and critically evaluated before they can be implemented in practice. Moreover, there is a growing need for integration with telecommunications systems and IT applications in order to improve safety, security and efficiency. This volume also addresses the need to solve important pollution problems associated with urban transport in order to achieve a healthier environment. The variety of topics covered by the included research works, which were presented at the 26th International Conference on Urban Transport and the Environment, reflect the complex interaction of urban transport systems with their environment and the need to establish integrated strategies. The goal is to arrive at optimal socio-economic solutions while reducing the negative environmental impacts of current transportation systems.




Rethinking Third Places


Book Description

Ray Oldenburg’s concept of third place is re-visited in this book through contemporary approaches and new examples of third places. Third place is not your home (first place), not your work (second place), but those informal public places in which we interact with the people. Readers will come to understand the importance of third places and how they can be incorporated into urban design to offer places of interaction – promoting togetherness in an urbanised world of mobility and rapid change.




Human Transit


Book Description

Public transit is a powerful tool for addressing a huge range of urban problems, including traffic congestion and economic development as well as climate change. But while many people support transit in the abstract, it's often hard to channel that support into good transit investments. Part of the problem is that transit debates attract many kinds of experts, who often talk past each other. Ordinary people listen to a little of this and decide that transit is impossible to figure out. Jarrett Walker believes that transit can be simple, if we focus first on the underlying geometry that all transit technologies share. In Human Transit, Walker supplies the basic tools, the critical questions, and the means to make smarter decisions about designing and implementing transit services. Human Transit explains the fundamental geometry of transit that shapes successful systems; the process for fitting technology to a particular community; and the local choices that lead to transit-friendly development. Whether you are in the field or simply a concerned citizen, here is an accessible guide to achieving successful public transit that will enrich any community.




Transforming Cities with Transit


Book Description

'Transforming Cities with Transit' explores the complex process of transit and land-use integration and provides policy recommendations and implementation strategies for effective integration in rapidly growing cities in developing countries.




A Companion to Transport, Space and Equity


Book Description

With social inequity in urban spaces becoming an increasing concern in our modern world, The Elgar Companion to Transport, Space and Equity explores the relationships between transport and social equity. Transport systems and infrastructure investment can lead to inequitable travel behaviours, with certain socio-demographic groups using particular parts of the transport system and accessing particular activities and opportunities.




Developing Bus Rapid Transit


Book Description

Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) is a popular mode of sustainable public urban transit given dedicated focus in this timely collection. The effects of BRT are examined in-depth through a range of case studies from cities across six continents, including analysis of BRT planning, implementation, operation, performance and impacts. The contributions from academics and non-academic experts on BRT are framed more broadly within the concept of value and how urban transport investment has and can be valued by and for society.