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Give the City Back to People: New Mobility Can Make Our Cities a Joy Again

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The subject of transforming cities with superior urban transit systems coupled with more extensive pedestrian walkways to enhance mobility is seldom targeted at the general audience. Thankfully, a book has been written that addresses this important issue so vital to our quality of life without strenuous and technical prose. Partly autobiographical, the author reflects on his role in helping to design the "horizontal elevator" or AGT (Automated Guideway Transit) which while only superficially in place in the U.S., is being utilized to a far greater degree abroad (especially in Lille, France where apparently one is able to access virtually every nook of the city without an automobile). Also included is an examination of the inception of the urban metro systems in place in S.F., Atlanta and Washington D.C. in which the author relays the inherent design flaws, thereby contributing to unexpectedly low ridership levels. Best of all is the fascinating and frustrating look back at how Americans once relied primarily on trolleys, buses and passenger rail for mobility until corporate giants, and later the Eisenhower administration, changed the face of the nation to provide us with the "total freedom of mobility" offered by the automobile in place of revolutionizing the original modes of transportation.