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Carfree Cities | 
 enlarge | Author: J. H. Crawford
Creator: Arin Verner
Publisher: International Books
Category: Book
Buy New: $29.95
New (10) Used (6) from $19.95
Avg. Customer Rating:  11 reviews
Sales Rank: 505115
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 324
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.5
Dimensions (in): 8.1 x 8.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 9057270374
Dewey Decimal Number: 301
EAN: 9789057270376
ASIN: 9057270374
Publication Date: September 1, 2000
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
In this volume filled with historical and contemporary references to guiding historic precedents and ideological errors of 20th-century planning, the author sets up the carfree city as the cornerstone of sustainable development. This book outlines a structure carefully designed to maximize the quality of life for people and communities worldwide.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 6 more reviews...
I love this book! January 6, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
There is no better time to consider the building of a car free city than now, and this is one of the best books out there on the topic. Many people believe that a high density living environment translates into a loss of freedome and personal space. We think of tall sky scrapers thousands of feet high to accomodate high density living and we associate that with stress and other negative factors. The author shows how by living in a little more dense environment, and building better public transit systems we can actually experience more freedom, not less freedom in a high density environment. Comparisons between LA and Venice, Italy help tell the story. A must read if you are interested in this topic.
Imagine a City without Cars January 4, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Crawford does an excellent job of opening up your mind to the possibilities of a world without cars. He takes a very close examination of two polar opposites Los Angeles, CA and Venice, Italy. He explores the ways cities have been built, and how they could be built. I particularly like that he draws up what a model car free city coul look like,even suggestions on where the first carfree city could be built. Many books out there talk about the destruction that has come along with an automobile dependent world. Crawford tells us how we could possibly escape it. Down Low Glow Lighting Kit - Two Tubes-Envy(green)Down Low Glow Lighting Kit - Two Tubes - Plush(red)
Visionary and Practical December 14, 2005
Mr. Crawford has done us all a great service by crafting a wonderfully readable book that beautifully blends vision and practicality. The reference model for Carfree Cities proposed in this meticulously considered work could quite possibly be the blueprint for reviving not only the art of building but the art of living itself.
Excellent manual for future city planning and survival July 7, 2005
3 out of 4 found this review helpful
There is a very desirable lifestyle possible between that of urban tenement slum and suburban car slum, and this book charts the way. The future lies in high-density habitation surrounded by very low-density green space. Walking, biking,a nd public transport will be the prime movers, not cars.
Innovative and Applicable Model for the Post-Automobile City June 24, 2005
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
More than half of the world's petrol sources have already been exhausted, and now, with rapidly industrializing countries with huge populations like China and India, demand and competition for petrol will skyrocket and accordingly prices will too. This is one of the three bases that Crawford sets for the radical revisioning of global city planning to abandon autocentric tendencies, and perhaps the most persuasive. The two others, that auto-use is destroying the Earth and that car-free developments, like Venice and very old sectors of European cities, are intrinsically more beautiful and livable areas, are both valid and convincing. But recent economic realities, as is currently being evidenced in global oil prices, perhaps serve to allow the reader to actually consider the feasability and necessity of abandonining continued suburbanization, rather than just relegating the thought as a utopian but impractical solution.
This book was written in 2000, but the predictions made regarding economic necesities are still valid and the book does not feel dated in the slightest bit. It was a joy to read - the author quite clearly wasn't an English major but the style he utilized - straight-forward and casual, in conjunction with many visual examples - is consistent with his overall vision of the carfree city: efficient, user-friendly, and pretty. At some parts the book is a little dry, but these stem from the specific topic of discussion (like freight transportation, which is very thoroughly conceieved) and are not indicative of the greater whole of the book. One of the more memorable sections of this book compares the strip malls and highways of Los Angeles against the vendors, stores, canals, and alleys of Venice - it perfectly demonstrates the ridiculous and sadistically-hilarious sacrifices we have made to live in our "car-dependent jungle." A little history of how we got to where we are is also included. Things don't have to be the way they are - and with new and pressing economic realities, they're not going to be able to for long either. Here's a fabulous concept for revisioning our cities.
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