Title
Straphanger : saving our cities and ourselves from the automobile / Taras Grescoe.
Edition
1st ed.
ISBN
9780805091731
0805091734
Imprint
New York : Times Books/Henry Holt, 2012.
Language
English
Description
x, 322 p. : maps ; 25 cm.
Call Number
HE4211 .G74 2012
Dewey Decimal Classification
388.4
Summary
Taras Grescoe rides the rails all over the world and makes an elegant and impassioned case for the imminent end of car culture and the coming transportation revolution. "I am proud to call myself a straphanger," writes Taras Grescoe. The perception of public transportation in America is often unflattering--a squalid last resort for those with one too many drunk-driving charges, too poor to afford insurance, or too decrepit to get behind the wheel of a car. Indeed, a century of auto-centric culture and city planning has left most of the country with public transportation that is underfunded, ill maintained, and ill conceived. But as the demand for petroleum is fast outpacing the world's supply, a revolution in transportation is under way. Grescoe explores the ascendance of the straphangers--the growing number of people who rely on public transportation to go about the business of their daily lives. On a journey that takes him around the world--from New York to Moscow, Paris, Copenhagen, Tokyo, Bogotá, Phoenix, Portland, Vancouver, and Philadelphia--Grescoe profiles public transportation here and abroad, highlighting the people and ideas that may help undo the damage that car-centric planning has done to our cities and create convenient, affordable, and sustainable urban transportation--and better city living--for all"-- Provided by publisher.
Bibliography, etc. Note
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Shanghai, China
Confessions of a straphanger
The subway that time forgot : New York, New York
Only connect : Los Angeles, California
The highway to hell : Phoenix, Arizona
The salvation of Paris : Paris, France
The Copenhagen Syndrome : Copenhagen, Denmark
Fools and roads : Moscow, Russia
City of trains : Tokyo, Japan
The revenge of the loser cruiser : Bogotá, Colombia
Good bones : Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia
The next great city : Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Montreal, Quebec.
