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Showing posts from 2016

Seductive but destructive goals: congestion-free and affordable driving

Urban transport decision-makers face huge pressures to keep driving uncongested and to keep it cheap. But take a look at cities that have worked long and hard to get free-flowing traffic and affordable driving. I doubt you will like what you see. This point was a central theme of my chapter "Achieving Sustainable Mobility" which appears in  The State of Asian and Pacific Cities 2015  jointly published late last year by UN-ESCAP and UN-HABITAT. The twin desires for congestion-free and affordable driving are understandable. They are politically seductive and play to motorists’ desires and the interests of car industries. But these desires are sending too many cities and their mobility systems down inequitable, costly and environmentally destructive development paths. The results of preventing congestion and of keeping driving cheap