Having purchased this book in 2011, I regret that I did not have the time to read it sooner. Writing this review serves to both atone for this and bring the book to the attention of a wider audience.
First and foremost, the title, Transport Revolutions--Moving People and Freight without Oil suggests that this book is one of the usual advocacies for alternative fuels, new technology, etc. While this may be true, to me the book's main value is its serving as an overview of the transportation industry from a nontraditional perspective. This ranges from the market share of various transportation modes to the role of transportation as a driver of economic activity.
Additionally there are some interesting concepts which go well beyond the usual suggestions of, for example, railroad electrification. These include the creation of a Transportation Redevelopment Administration and an even more radical proposal: a national ethos of shared sacrifice, a byproduct of which would be a focus on recasting transportation priorities.
Other interesting concepts include:
1. Focus on the value of time--for example, the past definition of cities based on how far one could walk by foot in an hour, and for the future, the redistribution of time as a way of inducing passengers to use slower, but more time-productive, modes of transportation.
2. Different perspectives for comparison of China with the USA, including the conventional comparison of transportation per capita but also the differences in leadership--China by engineers, the USA by lawyers;
3. Production subsidies involved in automobile manufacturing (as opposed to highway construction) in the USA; and
4. The relatively small role that transportation plays in the USA's national infrastructure budget.
It is important to note that I am writing this review based on a book purchased two years ago, and it therefore does not reflect the emergence of natural gas as a significant alternative. But most of its thought-provoking perspectives hold true, and this book remains both highly relevant and highly recommended.
Henry Posner III
Chairman, Railroad Development Corp.
Pittsburgh, PA
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