Here is a must read for those who have ANY lingering doubts about the negative impact of Large, Private Vehicles on humans obtaining a sustainable trajectory for civilization.
“Sustainable Transport and Liveable Community Planning”
http://www.planetizen.com/node/44451
Todd Litman lays out in two short pages — with a nice graphic and lots of links for followup reading – many of the externalities that flow from reliance on Large, Private Vehicles for Mobility and Access. It is tragic that most citizens of the US have no choice.
It is even more frightening that there is Agency, Enterprise, and Institutional stonewalling of any discussion of rational alternatives – such as Fundamental Transformation of human settlement patterns. That is one reason why an understanding of naive reality (See “Roadblock”) is so important. Also see THE NEXT BIG THING, forthcoming.
Those who read EMR’s work – e.g. THE PROBLEM WITH CARS, “Interstate Crime,” etc., know that EMR frequently cites Todd Litman. Litman is the founder and executive director of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute. EMR met Litman at TRB (The National Academy of Science’s Transportation Research Board) years ago and follows his work with interest.
Yes, there are ramifications of Autonomobile impact that Litman still underestimates. However, Litman’s work – and Joe Passonneau’s exposition of the impact of the Interstate Defense Highway System construction cost limiting strategies, the unintended wealth transfers and their externality impacts – are lights at the end of a long dark tunnel constructed by the Autonomobile Industrial Complex.
Along with careful analysis of the Texas Transportation Institute data (as opposed to the spin put on it to please the Enterprises and Institutions that sponsor TTI) and a few others sources, Litman is a critical source of realistic perspectives on Mobility and Access.
It is good to see VTPI moving into the mainstream. Litman’s work is one of the reasons the Business-As-Usual types (stirred up by the Autonomobile Industrial Complex) are apoplectic over the US DOT / US HUD / US EPA focus on ‘liveability.’
Read and enjoy!
EMR