Amazon.com Review

Reading Moshe Safdie's book The City After the Automobile feels at times like dipping into science fiction, particularly when considering his call for publicly owned electric cars kept in storage depots and rented to the masses. Most of the book, however, is a discussion of how to revolutionize city planning in order to reduce the necessity for cars. Safdie, an architect, uses his own plans for rebuilding portions of cities around the world as the basis for his argument supporting strong land-control laws and restriction of urban sprawl. Instead of suburban shopping malls, Safdie proposes a "linear center," a central area of concentrated development that would serve as a public arena.

By restricting land use and concentrating development in city centers instead of on the fringes, Safdie argues that reliance on gas-guzzling automobiles would become a nonissue. His truly is a revolutionary idea, especially for a culture that idealizes suburbia. Although some of the suggestions in The City After the Automobile might seem fanciful, any argument in favor of better planning, less pollution, and less waste of time, money, and resources makes a lot of sense.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From

Architect Safdie examines the car's tremendous impact upon our urban centers while arguing for the formation of new cities that incorporate the best of the old model with the open feel of the suburbs. The car's impact on the urban landscape became most pronounced after World War II, with a boom in both auto and highway production. City planning was then formulated around traffic flow and the need for parking. But with mobility, people headed out and away from the urban core, forming a new American city. We see it today in the housing enclaves, office buildings, and strip malls lining our highways. Safdie calls for a revolutionary change in city and regional planning to revitalize cities and give people the connection to nature they currently find in the suburbs. Insightful and thought provoking, the book is required reading for anyone concerned about the decline of the American city. Brian McCombie
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.