Introduction
The Geography of Urban Transportation1 edited by Genevieve Giuliano and Susan Hanson is a collection of 14 papers by different authors, arranged as (mostly) independent chapters, addressing numerous topics in transport geography including freight movement, public transport, transport planning, etc. The writing of this review began with a chapter-by-chapter analysis. This became increasingly pointless since all the chapters were repeating the same themes. Another approach is required.
In what follows, we start with a list of the common themes present among all the chapters. While twelve themes are identified, a complete analysis of only four are given for sake of brevity. Following this, some topics that should be covered in this text, but aren’t, are listed. Finally, we conclude with an appraisal of the suitability of this text for undergraduate or graduate instruction.
List of Common Themes
The following themes appear in each of the chapters, and many chapters contain more than one of these themes. Here are (sometimes satirical) names of these themes.
- Transportation systems are necessarily public goods
- Causal webs make the urban planning racket go around (a/k/a all 15th-order effects deserve consideration)
- We’re always one regulation away from transportation nirvana
- Automobiles bad, autonomy bad
- Personal responsibility does not exist
- Solving even a single transport problem involves reforming society on a global scale
- Transport problems can be explored without context
- We’re always one new technology away from transportation nirvana
- Act regionally or globally, or else
- The more available transportation is, the better
- America should be more like Europe
- Equity is a relevant criterion
Theme 4: Automobiles Bad, Autonomy Bad
Wherever automobiles are mentioned, they are always shown in a bad light. For example, the author of Chapter 3 claims that years of automotive have intensified the “balkanization of metropolitan society as a whole.” The author quotes a paper explaining what this “balkanization” means:
With massive auto transportation, people have found a way to isolated themselves… a way to privacy among their peer group… they have stratified the urban landscape like a checkerboard, here a place for the young married, there one for health care…The quote continues, explaining the consequences:
When people move from square to square, they move purposefully, determinately… They see nothing except what they are determined to see. Everything else is shut out from their experience.
So, moving “purposefully, determinately” is a bad thing, and as an alternative we should float around aimless and irresolute? What is being criticized here is the ability for people to associate with those who they want.
Driving in most states requires purchasing insurance, and insurance requirements lead to social inequity2.
Automobiles are the source of pollution emergencies3 and greenhouse gas emissions4. One way to fix this is to “force”5 vehicle manufactures to develop vehicles with more efficient engines. “Technology-forcing regulation has been the policy of choice because it focuses on the vehicle manufacturer rather than the vehicle user, and therefor does not require a change in people’s behavior. Efforts to change behavior… have been quite unsuccessful, as noted earlier, because we as a society have been unwilling to change the relative price of private vehicle travel sufficiently to induce significant changes.” Translation: technology-forcing regulation has been the policy of choice because there are far, far fewer vehicle manufacturers, making them easier to control.
More fuel-efficient vehicles mitigate pollution, but lower the revenue generated by gas taxes6. In other words, there is no pleasing these people.
Those who hold beliefs of this form are missing the whole point of automobiles: they are the only mode of transportation that gives individuals the autonomy and power to travel great distances where they choose. Automobiles put drivers into the driver’s seat, literally. This implies those against automobiles are against autonomy – and the alternatives they propose (public transport, rideshare, etc.) all involve centralized control.
Theme 7: Transport Problems can be Explored Without Context
A good example of solving transport problems without context is the discussion of “food deserts” in Chapter 13. Food deserts are defined as “low-income communities where the availability of heathy and affordable food is limited.” It is not stated why being in a “low-income” community is reason to consider this problematic. The author goes on to explain that people who aren’t low income must travel similar distances to obtain food, but those people have modes of transportation that don’t make this a burden. What isn’t explained is why these food deserts exist – is it economics, is it crime? No explanation is given.
Another example of this is in the opening of Chapter 1, where the story of Rosa Parks and the Montgomery Bus Boycott is given. The story is retold not to illustrate Ms. Park’s bravery but rather to show the “power of collective action” - the context is omitted.
Theme 8: We’re Always One New Technology Away from Transportation Nirvana
A wide variety of technologies are discussed, including alternatives to hydrocarbon fuels, such as hydrogen fuel cells, gasohol, “ethanol made from cellulosic biomass rather than corn,” and lithium-ion batteries. Other technologies mentioned in Chapter 14 include breathalyzers, sensors that notice when a driver is falling asleep, night vision enhancements, flashing cross-walks, smart signals, etc. A whole host of ridesharing solutions are listed.
One of the consequences of this is that the text, in places, appears dated. For example, Manhattan’s Via rideshare program7 has abandoned direct-to-customer operations and is now attempting to build city-scale “microtransit” systems. Google Cars8 has been discontinued. In fact, most of the P2P carsharing services listed in Box 14.2 (Getaround, Go-op, RelayRides, Spride Share, and WhipCar) have either changed their business models or are no longer in operation.
A variant of this theme is the assumption that new technologies always result in better solutions. For example, the use of information and communication technology (ICT) has made carsharing businesses possible, and results are systems where the individual cars have a higher percentage of daily use than non-shared automobiles9 10. The problem with this is that there were (and still are) these things called taxi cabs which costs the riders less than carshares. Experienced taxi drivers rapidly learn to minimize the time their taxis are empty – for example running a circuit that moves people between airports and bus stops in nearby small towns. Besides costing less, taxis operate with little or no central control.
These two problems (dated technology and assumption that tech will always make for a better future) have a common origin: it is is the authors’ confusion of goals with implementation. In the carsharing/ridesharing situation, the goal of carsharing/ridesharing is to make automobile usage more efficient according to some measure. If this is indeed a worthwhile goal, then the methods used to achieve that goal are irrelevant.
Another problem with the wide-ranging discussion of technologies (and wide-ranging discussion of social issues) is that the text has a scattered tone. A good illustration of this is Figure 4.1 which shows the percentage of U.S. households with landline phones, cell phones, home computers, and internet access. Exactly none of these technologies are forms of transportation.
Theme 9: Act Regionally or Globally, or Else
The most egregious example of this is found in Chapter 14, where the authors recount the San Francisco Revolt and give their opinion of the final outcome. A plan for a grid of freeways in San Francisco was proposed in the 1940s. When news of this plan was made public (why weren’t they made public from the start?), communities protested, and in 1959 the San Francisco Board of Supervisors cancelled seven of the 10 planned routes. One mile of the Embarcadero was built in 1959 before the protest went into full swing. This one mile stood until the early 1990s when it was demolished. The authors summarize this sequence of events as follows:
The Embarcadero Freeway revolt demonstrates the potential power of ordinary citizens. If, rather than opposing the freeway, the residents of San Francisco had accepted it as inevitable (given its strong support by the federal and state governments), the Embarcadero would probably have been completed and be standing to this day. Instead, the demolition of the freeway became a model for reclaiming urban spaces in other cities.
This description shows the level of entitlement that transportation planners have, and the level of legal wrangling and thuggery to which they are willing to resort. The people of San Francisco were excluded from deciding the appearance of their own city, and the city was restored only after decades of drawn-out legal disputes. The city planners assumed, or rather usurped, authority for reshaping the city, but they never paid the price for when those plans were rejected.
Omitted Topics
There are several topics that should have been included in this collection, especially given the type and level of political advocacy the authors recommend.
If a transportation-related project is to be justified, the justification must be established through empirical evidence and reasoning. Thus, methods of performing scientific observations and testing should be given more than the brief coverage given in Chapter 5. Any proposed infrastructure change must be justified through traffic counts, simulations, A/B testing when possible, and anything else needed to understand road usage patterns. Chapter 5 does discuss simulation methods only at a superficial level.
As observations are made and simulations performed, this data must be analyzed using statistics. The need for analysis to move from “prediction to prescription” is explained in Chapter 7. This chapter that contains descriptions of the types of investigations that traffic planners do, without providing any significant details or examples.
The problems attendant with publicly funded projects – fraud, cost over-runs, delays, regulatory failures, etc. – should be discussed along several axes: how to prevent, how to investigate and detect when they occur, and how claw-back lost funds. It must be made clear that people involved with these types of projects frequently claim the authority to run the projects but never accept responsibility when the projects fail.
Transportation is about moving people and things around. But is this an unlimited good? The lack of transportation can also be a good thing. There are at least three things an absence of transportation can prevent: crime, contagion spread, and invasive species.
High crime in public transit hubs and on buses and light rail is certainly common in cities like Philadelphia, New York, Los Angeles, etc. The real possibility that adding transit hubs, etc., introduces crime must be considered before those projects are budgeted.
Also, does crime follow transit routes? This is an issue that must be investigated.
COVID-19 proved that disease pathogens can indeed be spread by various modes of transportation, but far less destructive diseases, such as colds and flu, are transmittable between people on buses, light rail, and airplanes where riders are packed like sardines. People using modes of transportation that don’t force them into such proximity – automobiles, motorcycles, bicycles, walking, etc. – are far less likely to either transmit contagious diseases or be infected.
Invasive species aren’t a problem of urban transportation per se but are caused by globalization and global-scale transportation. For example, rabbits were carried to Australia in the 19th century where they deplete pasture vegetation and kill young trees in orchards and forests. The destruction of vegetation has resulted in serious erosion.
Florida is now home to Burmese pythons and Indochinese rhesus macaques. Pennsylvania now has spotted lanternflies that travelled on ships from China, Vietnam, or India. They have been a major crop pestilence since their arrival in 2012.
Conclusion
The papers in this text sometimes address legitimate transportation problems, but overwhelmingly the papers are used as platforms to advocate left-wing political issues.
It is true that large cities in America are predominately left-wing, but it should be realized that this has not always been the case and, given the conditions of cities like San Francisco, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Detroit, etc., it could change again. Together with the reliance on tech gadgets, leaves the text open rapidly becoming dated.
Based on this text as well as others, it appears that the field of transport geography is overran with advocacy politics, calling the academic validity of the entire field into question. If we attempt to separate the wheat from the chaff, is there any grain left over?
Because of this lack of objectivity and political neutrality, this text cannot be recommended for use by any university. Education is supposed to produce individuals that can critically examine the world around them, and this text instead requires the reader to accept dogma.
Footnotes
- Giuliano & Hanson, S, The Geography of Urban Transportation (4th Ed.)
- Ibid, chapter 13.
- Ibid, chapter 11.
- Ibid, chapter 12.
- Ibid, quotes supplied by the authors of Chapter 14
- Ibid, chapter 10.
- Ibid, chapter 4.
- Ibid, chapter 4.
- Ibid, chapter 4.
- Ibid, chapter 14.
Bibliography
Giuliano, G. & Hanson, S. The Geography of Urban Transportation (4th Ed.) The Guilford Press, 2017.
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