Sustainable Transportation: Problems And Solutions

Description:
During the past two decades, sustainability has become the dominant concern of transportation planners and policymakers. This timely text provides a framework for developing systems that move people and products efficiently while minimizing damage to the local and global environment. The book offers a uniquely comprehensive perspective on the problems surrounding current transportation systems: climate change, urban air pollution, diminishing petroleum reserves, safety issues, and congestion. It explores the full range of possible solutions, including applications of pricing, planning, policy, education, and technology. Numerous figures, tables, and examples are featured, with a primary focus on North America.

Review:
'This is not only an excellent book, it is a wise book. Rather than providing a 'silver bullet' for the problems of sustainable transportation, Black clarifies the options in a dynamic and increasingly vulnerable world. He shows how policy can play a role, as can pricing, more travel options, and design solutions. The text provides a panoramic and historical view of the limits of sustainability, from the level of horse manure New York City streets could handle in 1900 to the amount of oil we can import today without risking national security and our climate. This is a book that students, educators, planners, placemakers, and reform advocates would do well to study and reflect upon.' -- David Burwell, Founding Chair, Transportation Research Board Committee on Transportation and Sustainability, USA 'This book is a welcome addition to the evolving literature on how to put transport systems on a more sustainable pathway. Its coverage is vast -- beyond widely discussed topics like climate change, energy depletion, and local air pollution, Sustainable Transportation also chronicles the societal costs of road fatalities, oil spills, and traffic jams. Technological, urban planning, and demand management approaches to solving such problems are critically reviewed. The book deserves a place on transportation professionals' bookshelves and in graduate courses in environmental and transportation planning.' -- Robert Cervero, Department of City and Regional Planning and Director, University of California Transportation Center, University of California, Berkeley 'This outstanding book should become a standard text for courses on transportation. The analytical message is clear and the coverage is excellent. Black has struck 'pay dirt' in the clarity of his delivery and in refocusing traditional approaches to transportation from a sustainability orientation. In an engaging and appealing style, the text directly addresses what today's professors and students want to know about the interface of transport, energy, environment, and policy. Students in geography, planning, sociology, public affairs, environmental science, and civil engineering would flock to a course organized around this text.' -- Kingsley E. Haynes, Dean and University Professor, School of Public Policy, George Mason University, USA 'Black, true to form, has provided essential reading for anyone interested in sustainability challenges and solutions. This text is comprehensive in scope, accessibly written, and current. At times provocative, the book tackles issues as diverse as vehicle technology, full-cost pricing, and educating for change, and gives clear messages about the way forward.' -- Jean Andrey, Department of Geography and Environmental Management, University of Waterloo, Canada

Table of Contents:
Part 1. The Nature of the Problem. 1. The Problem of Sustainability in the Transport Sector. 2. The Historical Problem of Sustainability in the Transport. Sector. 3. Climate Change. 4. Urban Air Quality. 5. The Finite Nature of Petroleum Reserves. 6. Motor Vehicle Crashes and Safety. 7. Congestion and Sustainability. Part 2. Possible Solutions. 8. An Introduction to the Range of Possible Solutions. Pricing. 9. The Full Costs of Transportation. 10. Pricing and Taxation. Planning. 11. Urban Form: Planning for Sustainability. 12. Indicator-Based Planning. Policy. 13. A Continuum of Policies. 14. The Special Role of Speed and Speed Limit Policies. 15. National Policy Solutions. 16. Sustainable Travel Demand Management. Education. 17. Educating for Change. Technology. 18. Information and Communication Technologies, and E-Commerce. 19. The Potential of Alternative Fuels. 20. New Vehicles, Fuel Cells, and Catalytic Converters. 21. Intelligent Transport Systems. Part 3. Summary and Conclusions. 22. Summary, Conclusions, and the Current Status of Sustainable Transport.

Author Biography:
William R. Black Department of Geography, Indiana University Bloomington, USA