Book Review: Fast Wheels, Slow Traffic: Urban Transport Choices:CHARLES L. WRIGHT, 1992 Philadelphia: Temple University Press 288 pp., $34.95 (hardback)
Abstract
Book ReviewFast Wheels, Slow Traffic: Urban Transport ChoicesCHARLES L. WRIGHT, 1992 Philadelphia: Temple University Press 288 pp., $34.95 (hardback) SAGE Publications, Inc.08/1993DOI: 10.1080/00420989320081181 DavidBanister Planning and Development Research Centre University College London Transport planning is in need of radical views against which the strengths of the assumptions and paradigms used can be tested. This book attempts such a critique by taking a problem- solving, characteristics approach to urban transport planning which complements a basic pragmatism with a holistic view of the problems. Charles Wright's starting point is Lancaster's four postulates on the nature and importance of characteristics : (1) transport users and other urban residents receive utility from the characteristics that a mode, vehicle, or service possesses rather than from the mode, vehicle, or service itself; (2) usually, a given characteristic can be obtained from more than one mode, vehicle, or service, while a given mode, vehicle, or service normally contains more than one characteristic; (3) modes, vehicles and services in combination may possess different characteristics than if used separately; (4) the characteristics themselves are objectively measurable, although people may value the same characteristic differently. These postulates are combined with his essentially practical approach to define cost-effective options