Customer Reviews

A Very Public Solution: Transport in the Dispersed City

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Paul Mees grew up in Melbourne, and in this book compares the public transport of Melbourne with that in other cities, and tries to examine why in Melbourne it doesn't work as well as it could. He looks at how different cities have developed, and how transport has developed to get people around them, what seems to work and why, and what doesn't. He looks at the various elements that go into making a public transport system work - such as population density, route structure, quality of service - and then compares the systems of Toronto and Melbourne. Toronto, he says, has a more successful system because it is integrated, well designed, and aims at competing with car travel. Melbourne on the other hand has public transport modes competing against each other instead of against the car. He suggests that even sprawling cities such as Melbourne can make their public transport systems run much better if they are co-ordinated from a single centralised authority, and look to examples from similarly built cities such as Toronto for inspiration.

The book will be of particular interest to those living in places mentioned, but anybody interested in transport planning, especially for sprawling suburban areas similar to Melbourne or Toronto, should find this book useful.