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The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment

The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and DeploymentAuthors: William L. Garrison, David M. Levinson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Category: Book

List Price: $99.00
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Seller: academybookshop
Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars 1 reviews
Sales Rank: 1863429

Media: Hardcover
Edition: illustrated edition
Pages: 472
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.7
Dimensions (in): 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.2

ISBN: 0195172507
Dewey Decimal Number: 388.0973
EAN: 9780195172508
ASIN: 0195172507

Publication Date: October 13, 2005
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days

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  • Paperback - The Transportation Experience: Policy, Planning, and Deployment
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Editorial Reviews:

Product Description
While much of the transportation systems in Europe and the United States are mature (if not senescent), the rest of the world is still planning, developing, and deploying new systems. The accomplishments and mistakes of places like the United Kingdom and the United States, then, can teach us lessons that may be applied to places where transportation remains nascent or adolescent. The Transportation Experience seeks to understand the genesis of transportation policy in America and the UK, along with the roles that this policy plays as systems are innovated, deployed, and reach maturity, and how policies might be improved.


Customer Reviews:
4 out of 5 stars Best book I've read on transportation   October 30, 2005
Jadepearl (Wandering, USA)
11 out of 11 found this review helpful

I am not an expert in the field of transportation but I am interested in the history of technology and the synthesis of various areas of expertise, which is why I found this book rewarding.

The title and the major part headings were a bit vague but further reading proved to be worthwhile.

Parts include:

Life Cycle of the Railroads
Modal Experiences
Transit, Turnpike, highways, canals, ocean, aviation
Inputs and Outputs
Communication, energy, environment, finance, forecasting, time, land
Creating Experiences
Innovation, technology, imagination, benefits
Speculations

The book is accessible to an educated reader and advanced knowledge of the field of transportation is not necessary. However, a broad interest in transportation, policy, city planning, economics, geography, and in particular, network development is definitely a plus. If you can read academic writing this book is fine.

The main question that the book asks is: Why can't we do better in the field of transportation? This question is then answered by looking not only at transportation itself but all the other areas that affect transportation. The book looks at well developed modes of transport (railroad) and speculates about possible futures, such as PRT (personal rapid transit). The authors' aim to use the past to speculate on the future and to point alternative routes of development that are still available to other parts of world. This is interesting for not being purely descriptive, though it is heavy in case history.

One of the interesting facts that I found in the book was that the S-curve of innovation was first used by Tarde in 1890, which makes all the self-glorious management books on innovation neither overly innovative nor well researched.

Overall, a surprisingly good read for me. The pull-out boxes provide interesting short reading the history of various things such as Bell Labs, air mail, and the US Army Corps of Engineer. The main body of the text asks and analyses why the field of transportation has not done better but argues we can do well in the future if we, the reader, understand the underlying history, logic, and knowledge boundaries of transportation systems.

I give it 4 and a half stars, but I never give 5.