[.ca] Carfree Cities (ISBN 9057270420)

Imagining a Better City:
Full of interesting ideas, and written in readable text, this is an excellent book imagining the city without the automobile. He starts out by expounding on the problem: why cars in cities are bad. From environmental pollution to safety threats, he covers all the negatives about automobiles. Then he offers a theoretical solution: a reference design for a carfree city. It incorporates a large amount of public space and green space with moderately dense development. The city is based around small, pedestrian friendly districts connected by a rail-based metro (subway) or tram (streetcar) system. He also covers additional problems like the transportation of freight and emergency vehicles. The last portion of the book offers some more practical suggestions for transforming existing cities, creating new ones, and alternatives. Well researched, well documented, and very creative.

An Rx for an unhealthy planet:
What can we do about smog, traffic congestion, traffic fatalities, excessive energy consumption, unhealthy lifestyles, and sprawl, among others? The author identifies a solution to this problem, and surprisingly, one that has been proven in a number of countries. We have been sleepwalking into undesirable land use patterns (sprawl) for so long that we take it for granted that it is normal. Yet we complain about all the serious problems sprawl creates as though we can do nothing about it. For the first time, the solution by J.H. Crawford addresses these concerns with a carefully thought-out, well-supported framework: the carfree planning approach. Outrageous as this may first sound, it is already being practiced in many cities around the globe, notably in Europe. Cars are not totally removed from the equation, but serve less frequent, more focused roles. With oil resources steadily dwindling, such a proposal merits top-shelf prominence among visionary planners and developers alike. This book has changed my land use planning outlook completely.

Lives up to Expectations:
\o....\c Crawford makes a strong argument about why the automobile is probably the worst invention to man. The statistics in the book are excellent. Although a few parts of the book did seem to drag (like the intensive analysis of the tram system), the vast majority of the book is very interesting. I especially enjoyed the comparison of Venice to Los Angeles and the part the explained alternatives to fossil fuels. This is definitely a book to have if you're interested in cities, city planning, environmental preservation, and/or economics.

Carfree Cities by Joel Crawford:
Carfree Cities is a pathbreaking work that outlines how human beings can live in an urban environment entirely free from cars. As someone working to uncover mathematical forces that shape urban form, I appreciate Crawford's efforts and applaud his conclusions. I personally believe that the city of the future will have to combine many different means of transportation, including the hated/loved car, but it is not clear to most planners how to achieve this. Crawford's book provides a well thought-out plan for pedestrian life, which, in the hands of an enlightened urbanist, can be used to drastically improve the quality of existing cities. Therefore, while I don't necessarily accept Crawford's total exclusion of cars, I find his solutions vitally important to the future of cities. Furthermore, I don't think that anyone would have taken him seriously unless he did what he has done: to show that a totally carfree solution is possible. Not only is it possible, but Crawford has shown that it is both feasible and practical. Congratulations to him for this outstanding work.

Car Free Cities: a second chance to save our world:
I consider Carfree Cities to be a landmark text with excitingpossibilities to reverse the decimation of our cities, our society,our open spaces including wilderness and farmland, and our entire ecostytem by the automobile...