My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America [Hardcover]

Darrin Nordahl (Author)

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Product Details

Hardcover: 176 pages
Publisher: Center for American Places; 1 edition (April 1 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1930066880
ISBN-13: 978-1930066885
Product Dimensions: 23.6 x 18.5 x 2.1 cm
Shipping Weight: 839 g
Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #433,157 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #47 in Books > Nonfiction > Transportation > Mass Transit

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Product Description

Review

“My Kind of Transit is the first volume I have come across that comprehensively considers transit in terms of those factors that actually determine whether or not people will choose to ride it. Nordahl’s humane, and even humanist, arguments recognize and celebrate how transit, if properly designed, can be elevated in the public esteem from loser cruiser to mode of choice. Please, if your work deals in any way with planning or transportation, do us all a favor and read his book.”—Jeff Speck, coauthor of Suburban Nation: The Rise of Sprawl and the Decline of the American Dream

(Jeff Speck )

“This unique work will inspire scholars and students to research further on this essential and largely untreated topic. It will also pop up on the shelves of those urbanists who ponder wistfully on the loss of great city culture and vital urban social life and imagine the emergence of a more beautiful, more convivial, and more livable urban future.”—Susan Zielinski, University of Michigan

(Susan Zielinski )

Product Description

In America’s car-dominated landscape, public transit has long played second fiddle, but rising gasoline prices and the global warming crisis point to a need for alternative means of transportation. Darrin Nordahl sets the stage for these efforts by proposing that the experience of public transit and the quality of the ride are pivotal to the success of public transit.

My Kind of Transit explores America’s most beloved transit systems and how they work. From San Francisco’s cable cars to Pittsburgh’s funiculars to the streetcars of New Orleans, Nordahl recounts a transportation history of both short-sighted planning and visionary policies, and reveals that current American transit systems contain many key elements for successfully expanding public transport. My Kind of Transit explains the characteristics of ideal transit, or “passenger enrichment,” such as transit vehicles that offer views of the surrounding landscape and systems that enable diverse peoples to interact.

Successful public transport must be a uniquely enjoyable experience for riders, My Kind of Transit contends, and it offers a new vision of civic engagement that occurs when we step out of our cars and onto the train.

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com ^(beta)

Amazon.com: 4.0 out of 5 stars (1 customer review)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Transit from a customer-centric view, Aug 12 2011

By David Dennis - Published on Amazon.com

This review is from: My Kind of Transit: Rethinking Public Transportation in America (Hardcover)

People in the public transport business care about unionized workers. They care about creating big projects to get interest from stakeholders. Who they don't care about is customers. Customers, after all, are mostly poor, dispossessed folks who should be glad they have public transport at all.

This book challenges this idea and looks at public transport from the perspective of customers. How can we really get people out of their cars? By making public transport accessible and fun to use. The author talks convincingly about what might make that happen, using a number of real world examples.

I am dubious that people could really be coaxed out of their car, since cars are so much more convenient than trains or busses. But the idea of making public transportation a social space instead of just a utilitarian way to get people from place to place is very appealing.

I somehow doubt that making public transport even slower than it is today is going to make things work for most. But I applaud the author in at least asking questions I have never seen asked before. This book is very much worth reading for the examples, and for people to really think about what could make public transport make sense for at least some people in our age of hustle and bustle.

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