Synopses & Reviews
With wit and sharp insight, former Traffic Commissioner of New York City, Sam Schwartz a.k.a. and#147;Gridlock Sam,and#8221; one of the most respected transportation engineers in the world and consummate insider in NYC political circles, uncovers how American cities became so beholden to cars and why the current shift away from that trend will forever alter Americaand#8217;s urban landscapes, marking nothing short of a revolution in how we get from place to place.
When Sam Schwartz was growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklynand#151;his block belonged to his community: the kids who played punchball and stickball and their parents, whoand#8217;d regularly walk to the local businesses at which they also worked. He didnand#8217;t realize it then, but Bensonhurst was already more like a museum of a long-forgotten way-of-life than a picture of Americaand#8217;s future. Public transit traveled over and under city streetsand#151;New Yorkand#8217;s first subway line opened in 1904and#151;but the streets themselves had been conquered by the internal combustion engine.
Americaand#8217;s dependency on the automobile began with the 1908 introduction of Henry Fordand#8217;s car-for-everyone, the Model T. The and#147;battle for right-of-wayand#8221; in the 1920s saw the demise of streetcars and transformed Americaand#8217;s streets from a multiuse resource for socializing, commerce, and public mobility into exclusive arteries for private automobiles. The subsequent destruction of urban transit systems and post WWII suburbanization of America enabled by the Interstate Highway System and the GI Bill forever changed the way Americans commuted.
But today, for the first time in history, and after a hundred years of steady increase, automobile driving is in decline. Younger Americans increasingly prefer active transportation choices like walking or cycling and taking public transit, ride-shares or taxis. This isnand#8217;t a consequence of higher gas prices, or even the economic downturn, but rather a collective decision to be a lot less dependent on carsand#151;and if American cities want to keep their younger populations, they need to plan accordingly. In Street Smart, Sam Schwartz explains how.
In this clear and erudite presentation of the principles of smart transportation and sustainable urban planningand#151;from the simplest cobblestoned street to the brave new world of driverless cars and trainsand#151;Sam Schwartz combines rigorous historical scholarship with the personal and entertaining recollections of a man who has spent more than forty years working on planning intelligent transit networks in New York City. Street Smart is a book for everyone who wants to know more about the who, what, when, where, and why of human mobility.
Review
and#147;A readable and provocative book making the convincing claim that the best city is one in which people can move around easily.and#8221;
and#151;Kirkus Reviewsand#147;Anyone interested in how people get from place to place will find this first-person narrative instructive and entertaining.and#8221; and#151;Library Journal
Praise for Samuel I. Schwartz
and#147;King of the Roads and Traffic Boss.and#8221; and#151;New York Post
and#147;The Man with the Plan.and#8221; and#151;New Yorker
and#147;Transportation Guru.and#8221; and#151;Huffington Post
and#147;Traffic Czar.and#8221; and#151;Crainand#8217;s New York
and#147;[The] Wayne Gretzky of Traffic Planning.and#8221; and#151;Windsor Star
and#147;and#145;Gridlockand#8217; Sam Schwartz has seen every type of traffic and transportation triumph, tragedy, disaster, and design in his storied career.and#8221; and#151;Toronto Sun
and#147;Sam Schwartz is the worldand#8217;s leading authority on [traffic].and#8221; and#151;Interview Magazine
and#147;The and#233;minence grise of traffic circles.and#8221; and#151;New York Times
and#147;One of the countryand#8217;s leading transportation engineers.and#8221; and#151;Gothamist
Synopsis
On a Saturday morning in December 1973, a section of New Yorkand#8217;s West Side Highway collapsed under the weight of a truck full of asphalt. The road was closed, seemingly for good, and the 80,000 cars that traveled it each day had to find a new way to their destinations. It ought to have produced traffic chaos, but it didnand#8217;t. The cars simply vanished. It was a moment of revelation: the highway had induced the demand for car travel. It was a classic case of and#147;build it and they will come,and#8221; but for the first time the opposite had been shown to be true: knock it down and they will go away. Samuel I. Schwartz was inspired by the lesson. He started to reimagine cities, most of all his beloved New York, freed from their obligation to cars. Eventually, he found, he was not alone.
Since the turn of the twenty-first century, a surreptitious revolution has taken place: every year Americans are driving fewer miles. And the generation named for this new centuryand#151;the Millennialsand#151;are driving least of all. Not because they canand#8217;t afford to; they donand#8217;t want to. They have better ideas for how to use their streets. An urban transformation is underway, and smart streets are at the heart of it. They will boost property prices and personal fitness, roll back years of congestion and smog, and offer a transformative experience of American urban life. From San Francisco to Salt Lake, Charleston to Houston, the American city is becoming a better and better place to be. Schwartzand#8217;s Street Smart is a dazzling and affectionate history of the struggle for control of American cities, and an inspiring off-road map to a more vibrant, active, and vigorous urban future.
About the Author
Sam Schwartz is one of the leading transportation experts in the United States today. He began his professional transportation career as a NYC taxi cab driver while obtaining his Bachelor of Science degree in Physics at Brooklyn College and later obtained a Master of Science degree in Civil Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. His expertise extends into the areas of urban infrastructure, traffic safety, transportation systems, regional planning and development, urban design and civil engineering. He served as New York City's Traffic Commissioner and the New York City Department of Transportation's Chief Engineer/First Deputy Commissioner. After nearly twenty years with the New York City Department of Transportation, Mr. Schwartz joined Hayden-Wegman Consulting Engineers, Inc. in 1990. In the summer of 1995, he opened Sam Schwartz Engineering, which now employs a staff of more than 100 professional engineers, planners, designers, and pedestrian traffic managers in six offices throughout the country.
William Rosen is a former editor and publisher at Macmillan, Simon and Schuster, and The Free Press. He has contributed to The Wall Street Journal, The American Interest, Laphamand#8217;s Quarterly, The New Atlantic, The Washington Post Book World, Bloomberg, and Smithsonianand#8217;s Echoes, and is the author of Justinian's Flea: The First Great Plague and the End of the Roman Empire (Viking, 2007), The Most Powerful Idea in the World: A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention (Random House, 2010) and The Third Horseman: Climate Change and the Great Famine of the 14th Century (Viking, 2014).