Book Review

Breaking Gridlock: Moving Toward Transportation That Works

By Jim Motavalli.
San Francisco: Sierra Club Books, 2001.
256 pages; $23.00 hardcover.

Reviewed by Bill Smith

Jim Motavalli presents transportation history, future, fact and fantasy in this book. He moves methodically through his subject, starting with the problems we face now with a highway/automobile-centric transportation system. He looks at the situation in five very different American cities and then examines transportation in Europe. From there he covers cars, busses, trains, airplanes, and ferries. In the final chapter, he presents his conclusions and discusses what is needed to get a better transportation system in place. Even the footnotes, resources, and bibliography are worth reading.

The author covers a lot of ground, but his writing style is light enough to get you through a complex subject. You will find some wonderfully simple ideas mixed in with the heavier facts. For example, I loved the concept of a walking school bus. With this approach, an adult leads a large group of children safely to school, on foot. In some instances the adult pushes a cart loaded with school packs. It’s like taking the crossing guard with you to all the intersections.

If you read this book, you will get an introduction to a wide range of topics, including fuel cells, decentralized airports, automated highways, and catamaran ferries. Motavalli also discusses many ideas that didn’t quite make it. For example, do you remember the flying car? I have a vague memory of seeing one, wings in tow, on route 2, in Greenfield, MA in the late fifties or early sixties.

Give this book to community activists, transportation officials, and even politicians. It can¹t hurt. If they read it, maybe some of them will understand the difference between the concepts of "transportation" and "driving."

Bill Smith does minimum impact development consulting in Concord, New Hampshire.