The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment [Hardcover]

William L. Garrison (Author), David M. Levinson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 13, 2005

While much of the transportation systems in Europe and the United States are mature (if not senescent), the rest of the world is still planning, developing, and deploying new systems. The accomplishments and mistakes of places like the United Kingdom and the United States, then, can teach us lessons that may be applied to places where transportation remains nascent or adolescent. The Transportation Experience seeks to understand the genesis of transportation policy in America and the UK, along with the roles that this policy plays as systems are innovated, deployed, and reach maturity, and how policies might be improved.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"The Transportation Experience takes a no-gloves approach with well-thought-out and provocative statements on transit, energy, the environment, induced demand, and even the choice of paving materials and aid to developing nations. Garrison and Levinson have produced a timeless book."-Reg Souleyrette, Gerald and Audrey Olson Professor of Civil Engineering, Iowa State University

"The Transportation Experience is wholly unlike any other text on transportation out there. It is wide-ranging, eclectic, well-argued, discursive, nonlinear, historical, futuristic, insightful, and sprawling; it takes us off in many directions at once; and it epitomizes what's so intrinsically enthralling and at the root of transportation: connectivity."-David A. Plane, Professor of Geography and Regional Development, University of Arizona

"Two of the most original thinkers in transportation-Garrison and Levinson-have joined forces to created a truly unique book. While most scholarship examines transportation problems from distinct disciplinary lenses, these two self-proclaimed 'transportationists' argue in twenty-eight wide-ranging chapters for a new, transportation-centered disciplinary lens through which economic, political, and technological issues can be viewed in a very different light."-Brian D. Taylor, AICP, Associate Professor and Vice-Chair of Urban Planning, Director, UCLA Institute of Transportation Studies

"Comprehensive, insightful, and well-written, this volume should be of interest to everyone interested in how we got to where we are and where we will most likely go in the future with transport. It should also be the first volume read by the planners, engineers, and social scientists who intend to devote their careers to transport research."-William R. Black, Professor and Chairman, Department of Geography, Indiana University

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

William L. Garrison is at University of California, Berkeley (Emeritus). David M. Levinson is at University of Minnesota.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 472 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (October 13, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195172507
• ISBN-13: 978-0195172508
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,006,808 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Best book I've read on transportation, October 29, 2005

By 

Jadepearl "geezer geek" (Wandering, USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment (Paperback)

I am not an expert in the field of transportation but I am interested in the history of technology and the synthesis of various areas of expertise, which is why I found this book rewarding.

The title and the major part headings were a bit vague but further reading proved to be worthwhile.

Parts include:

Life Cycle of the Railroads

Modal Experiences

Transit, Turnpike, highways, canals, ocean, aviation

Inputs and Outputs

Communication, energy, environment, finance, forecasting, time, land

Creating Experiences

Innovation, technology, imagination, benefits

Speculations

The book is accessible to an educated reader and advanced knowledge of the field of transportation is not necessary. However, a broad interest in transportation, policy, city planning, economics, geography, and in particular, network development is definitely a plus. If you can read academic writing this book is fine.

The main question that the book asks is: Why can't we do better in the field of transportation? This question is then answered by looking not only at transportation itself but all the other areas that affect transportation. The book looks at well developed modes of transport (railroad) and speculates about possible futures, such as PRT (personal rapid transit). The authors' aim to use the past to speculate on the future and to point alternative routes of development that are still available to other parts of world. This is interesting for not being purely descriptive, though it is heavy in case history.

One of the interesting facts that I found in the book was that the S-curve of innovation was first used by Tarde in 1890, which makes all the self-glorious management books on innovation neither overly innovative nor well researched.

Overall, a surprisingly good read for me. The pull-out boxes provide interesting short reading the history of various things such as Bell Labs, air mail, and the US Army Corps of Engineer. The main body of the text asks and analyses why the field of transportation has not done better but argues we can do well in the future if we, the reader, understand the underlying history, logic, and knowledge boundaries of transportation systems.

I give it 4 and a half stars, but I never give 5.

4.0 out of 5 stars Great synopsis, January 5, 2012

By 

MRod305 - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment (Paperback)

Read this book if you want a strong primer on America's transportation issues and how we got to this point. Well worth the read for urban planners, civil engineers, urbanists, policy analysis, and others who have an interest in infrastructure.