Recommended Reading

A growing list of the books, reports, blogs and articles that we think are well worth a read. We’re bound to have missed something, so please drop us a line with your suggestions and recommendations.

Books and reports

Cities for People - Jan Gehl

What Jan Gehl doesn’t know about creating liveable cities probably isn’t worth knowing. He has spent all his working life studying the ways that people use public spaces and how the design of urban environments impacts on quality of life. In his latest book he has managed to compress all that knowledge into 250 inspiring pages – no mean feat.

Fairness in a Car-dependent Society – Duncan Kay

This report for the Sustainable Development Commission combines statistics, reflections on rights and responsibilities and practical recommendations to highlight the unfairness inherent in car orientated transport systems – that vulnerable groups travel the least while being disproportionately affected by the negative impacts of other people’s travel habits.

Pedaling Revolution: How cyclists are changing American cities – Jeff Mapes

It may not be the land of milk and honey when it comes to riding a bike but there is plenty we can learn from America’s budding cycling renaissance – not least what local government can achieve when it really puts its mind to something. A very readable whistle-stop tour through cycle advocacy, cycling cultures and the US cities doing the most to get bums on saddles; with (of course) a stop in Amsterdam on the way.

Rumble Strip: If you want to get away with murder, buy a car – Woodrow Phoenix

It’s not every day you come across a comic book like this. Burning with a righteous anger this is a beautifully illustrated call to arms for restraining car use and reducing road danger. The fact that it’s written by someone who has no professional interest in the issues makes it all the more powerful – a winning combination of personal experience, research, and observation.

The Energy Glut: The politics of fatness in an overheating world – Ian Roberts and Phil Edwards

During discussions at Street Talks we almost always end up recommending people buy this book. Why? Well it’s packed with facts and pulls no punches in exploring the relationship between cheap oil, car orientated design of towns and cities, increased road danger, obesity and global climate change; and, as if that wasn’t enough, all profits go to RoadPeace.

Articles

Cars have evolved to go faster, but humans haven’t - Frank McKenna (New Scientist, 11 October 2011)

Downtown is for people – Jane Jacobs (Fortune.com, 18th September 2011; originally published 1958)

Great places: reorienting progressive politics for the 21st century - David Roberts (Grist, 23rd May 2011)

Making cycling irresistible: lessons from The Netherlands, Denmark and Germany – John Pucher and Ralph Buehler (Transport Reviews, July 2008)

Save our cities: build for bicycles, not cars – Dave Horton (Bike Hub, 12th June 2011)

The car as renter of the city, not landlord – Tom Vanderbilt (How we drive, 14th December 2010)

The case for bicycle infrastructure – Tommi and Mikael Colville-Anderson (Copenhagenize, 16th August 2011)

Blogs

London

UK

International