Synopses & Reviews
An examination of the social, political and technological forces that shaped our cities and their transportation systems.
Review
'Dr. Yago has done a great service by clearly delineating the deplorable state of public transportation in the United States. His book provides a powerful motivation for, at last, bringing American public transportation up to the level which is common in other industrialized countries.' Barry Commoner, Center for the Biology of Natural Systems
Review
'At last, a book that explains transportation planning and technology in terms of class power and interest group politics. A must for anyone interested in the past and future of cities.' Chester Hartman, Institute for Policy Studies
Review
'This book is the product of careful, at times rich and meticulous, research, combining in unusual fashion, historical, statistical and case study approaches. Its topic is important and of current interest, and it contributes to scholarly literature not only about transportation and urbanism, but also about the state and public policy more generally. It persuasively tries to move beyond ecological and technological determinism in accounting for the major changes in public transportation in Germany and the United States in this century. Overall, Glenn Yago succeeds in presenting a gold mine of information about transportation issues.' Ira Katznelson, New School for Social Research
Synopsis
This book scrutinizes the social, political and technological forces that shaped our cities and their transportation systems. By comparing two of the most powerful twentieth-century economies, the United States and Germany, it explores the factors - largely those of economic concentration and bureaucratic centralization - that transformed urban life.
Table of Contents
Preface; 1. Introduction; 2. Twentieth-century mass transit in German and US cities; 3. The formation of national transportation policy: the case of Germany; 4. The formation of national transportation policy: the case of the United States; 5. Transportation politics: the case of Frankfurt am Main; 6. Transportation politics: the case of Chicago; 7. Conclusion: urban transportation for whom?; Statistical appendix; Notes; References; Index.