magnificent in parts
This book points out an all too often ignored point: that arguments over sprawl and transportation are really arguments about race and class, because when government provides roads to accelerate suburban sprawl but does not create transit to reach highway-created suburbs, it essentially freezes the carless poor, elderly and disabled out of employment and civic life. Some of the essays in this book are a bit dull and bureaucratic--but the best make it worth reading. I especially recommend David Oedel's essay on Macon, where after desegregation the city wrecked its small bus system by investing heavily in suburban areas without bus service. The result: in a city where 14% of the households (mostly African-Americans) don't have cars, bus service stops running at 6ish. After reading this I couldn't help wondering: "have they [the governing elites in places like Macon] no shame?"
