Phillippa Howden-Chapman

(Collection of essays on interlinking between transport planning and more general urban planning, particularly in light of two key developing challenges -the need to reduce CO2 emissions and the impact of peak oil prices. )

This seemed a well edited collection - the essays interlink well and form a coherent whole - and the book is very accessible to the interested outsider - I'm neither from New Zealand nor a town/transport planner. There were only a couple of specific terms I had to double check - the 'leaky homes' crisis wasn't familiar to me - and overall this was an interesting and informative read. There was a little more sociology than I'd expected, which makes a lot of sense - as the various authors point out repeatedly, people do not make travel decisions in a vacuum. The case studies, surveys and interviews were clear in their analysis, and illuminating for someone who was unfamiliar with the communities being discussed.

The five chapters on 'Disciplinary Perspectives' were particularly engaging, as they presented more generalised ways of thinking about urban life and transport issues. As a regular tube commuter, and advocate for 'third spaces' in my city, Marie Russell's essay on "Convivial public transport" rang particularly true, and presented a very positive approach to considering the co-benefits of public transport - and argument badly needed in the UK as in NZ!

Format-wise, I wish this had been available in formats other than pdf, but appreciate the current technical challenges with managing tables, illustrations, and footnotes in more flexible formats. The editors choice to keep all the references at the end, rather than at the end of each chapter, was a little frustrating, and prompted a lot of jumping back and forth - the active links to online resources did make it easy to follow many of the references to their source, though.

This is a 2011 book, but based on conferences in 2008 & 9, so at times seemed a little dated - very little discussion of the impact of the global economic downturn, and, of course, no mention of Christchurch earthquakes, which makes the various papers that use Christchurch as a case study somewhat bitter sweet. I can only hope that Tony Moore's optimistic vision of an inviting, sustainable city that prioritises its people comes to pass.… (lisätietoja)