Tom MacWright

tom@macwright.com

I read Human Transit by Jarrett Walker on

Review

Easily the best book I’ve read related to transportation. Human Transit doesn’t just describe transit systems - it puts you in the position of a planner and makes you think about the inherent tradeoffs to different designs. It’s rich with good examples from around the world and has an incredible focus - Walker wastes little time on extended biographies or anecdotes.

The balance between different modes of transit is accomplished extremely well, and it also doesn’t focus solely on super-dense cities, but takes into account varying density, suburbs, and how much density is necessary to build great transit, if at all.

I really enjoyed this read, and would recommend it to anyone interested in transportation. Where Street Fight was an inspiring record of one era of one city’s planning, Human Transit is both wider-ranging and more functional - it starts before the decisions are made, and asks questions about aims and values that lead into substantive discussion and lots of valuable insight.

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