Automobility
and Auto-dependence: Working Bibliography
Ashwani Vasishth <ashwani@csun.edu> [Last Update:
April 20, 2004]
Bourne, L. S. 1992. "Self-Fulfilling Prophecies? Decentralization, Inner City Decline, and the Quality of Urban Life," Journal of the American Planning Association, v58n4 (Autumn 1992): 509(5). [In "The Commuting Paradox," Gordon, Richardson, and Jun conclude that, despite rapid urban growth and the widespread public image of congestion, average automobile commuting times have not increased. They suggest that extensive decentralization has allowed for the maintenance, or even in some instances a reduction, of average commuting times. Objections are raised to the views represented by these conclusions, and the underlying assumptions and preconceptions on which they are based are challenged. The problem with Gordon, Richardson, and Jun's conclusions - on the reasons for and consequences of suburban dispersion, on the role of planning, and on the future of both central areas and new suburbs - is that they are framed within a set of assumptions, values, and preconceptions relating to the urban development process, the position of governments, and the operation of the market that are largely unstated and untested. If such sweeping and subjective generalizations are left unchallenged, they will not only be widely read and accepted but frequently cited.]
Bruce-Briggs, B. 1977. The War Against the Automobile. New York, NY: Dutton.
Buzbee, William W. 2003. "Urban Form,
Health, and the Law's Limits," American
Journal of Public Health, v93n9 (Sep 2003): 1395. [Buzbee
opines that urban form, the law, and health are undoubtedly linked; however,
nonlegal factors, such as 20th century reliance on the automobile as well as
associated governmental actions and private investment choices, have greatly
influenced urban form, especially sprawl. He further claims that existing legal
frameworks and modest legal reforms provide means to encourage or at least
allow urban forms that are more conducive to health.]
Cervero, Robert. 1996.
"Jobs-Housing Balance Revisited: Trends and Impacts In the San Francisco
Bay Area," Journal of the American
Planning Association, v62n4): 492(20). [Regions
in California have recently set jobs-housing balance targets, to relieve
traffic congestion and improve air quality. Critics of such targets charge that
many factors prevent people from living near their workplaces, and that market
forces, left unobstructed, work to produce balance - that is, people and firms
co-locate to reduce imbalances. Changes in the ratios of jobs to employed
residents in 23 large San Francisco Bay Area cities during the 1980s are
examined. Imbalances were found to have declined generally, mainly because
dormitory communities in the 1980s had attracted businesses by 1990. However,
imbalances generally worsened in job-surplus cities, particularly in the
Silicon Valley. Little association was found between job-housing balance and
self-containment. Several Bay Area cities are nearly perfectly balanced, yet
fewer than a 3rd of their workers reside locally, and even smaller shares of
residents work locally. Restricted housing production, especially in
fast-growing cities, has in many instances raised housing prices, displacing workers
and increasing average commute distances. Eliminating barriers to residential
mobility and housing production would allow more housing and jobs to co-locate
in the future.]
Cervero, Robert. 1996. Paradigm
Shift: From Automobility To Accessibility Planning. Berkeley: University of California at
Berkeley, Institute of Urban and Regional Development. ["Keynote speech and paper prepared for ... 15th
EAROPH World Planning congress, Auckland, New Zealand, September 1996."] [Also published as: "Paradigm Shift: From Automobility
to Accessibility Planning," Urban Futures 22: 9-20, 1997.]
Crawford, James H. 2000. Carfree
Cities. Utrecht: International
Books.
Daniels, Jeff. 1990. The Motor Industry and the Environment. London, UK; New York, NY: Economist Intelligence Unit.
Dittmar, Hank. 1995. "A Broader Context for Transportation Planning," Journal of the American Planning Association, v61n1 (Winter 1995): 7(7). [Americans are not necessarily in love with their cars. They are responding to a set of signals society gives them by building ring roads and beltways, subsidizing free parking and suburban development through utility infrastructure, and providing tax incentives that favor car use and suburban home ownership. These signals favor continued sprawl and reliance on cars. Changing these endemic signals by creating incentives to live in the city, eliminating tax biases toward cars, and enhancing livability can send the public new signals. The key to solving Americans' conflict about the automobile and their reliance upon it is restoring travel choices, invigorating transportation decisions with a sense of good design and of context, and starting to focus on accessibility rather than mobility.]
Doyle, Jack. 2000. Taken for A Ride : Detroit's Big Three and the Politics of Pollution. New York, NY: Four Walls Eight Windows.
Dunn Jr., James A. 1999. "The Politics of Automobility," The Brookings Review, v17n1 (Winter 1999: 40 (4). [The automobile is the solution to most Americans' transportation needs. But its very success has generated serious problems - most notably, congestion, pollution, and energy inefficiency - that need to be addressed by public policy. As policymakers seek solutions to the problems generated by mass auto use, they must acknowledge, though, the enormous benefits Americans derive from the convenience, mobility, and privacy of their cars. Crafting practical and politically effective remedies to the auto's problems begins by recognizing the indispensability of automobility. One of the most promising paths for policymakers to pursue in tackling the problems of the automobile is technology. In fact, the US has been the world leader in "technology-forcing" automobile regulations. Automakers strongly oppose further increases in the corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards.]
Flink, James J. 1975. The Car Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Flink, James J. 1988. The Automobile Age. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Forman, Richard T.T. et al. 2003. Road
Ecology: Science and Solutions.
Washington, DC: Island Press.
Foster, Mark S. 2003. Nation On Wheels: The Automobile Culture In America Since 1945. Belmont, CA: Thomson, Wadsworth, c2003.
Freeman, Lance. 2001. "The Effects of Sprawl On Neighborhood Social Ties: An Explanatory Analysis," Journal of the American Planning Association, v67n1 (Winter 2001): 69 (9). [The notion that sprawl, in the form of low-density, auto-dependent neighborhoods, is inimical to neighborhood social bonds is a recurrent theme in the planning literature. Although this seems like common sense, relatively little empirical evidence exists to support the notion. This thesis is tested using data from a cross-sectional survey of adults in Atlanta, Boston, and Los Angeles and from the 1990 decennial census. Although residential density was found to be unrelated to the formation of neighborhood social ties, it was significantly and substantially related to the degree to which residents of a neighborhood relied on their automobiles.]
Freund, Peter E.S. & George Martin. 1993. The Ecology of the Automobile. Montreal; New York: Black Rose
Books.
Gomez-Ibanez, J.A. 1991. "A Global View of Automobile Dependence," Journal of the American Planning Association, v57n3 (1991): 376-9.
Gordon, P. & A. Kumar & H.W. Richardson. 1989. "Congestion, Changing Metropolitan Structure and City Size in the U.S." International Regional Science Review, v12n1 (1989):45-56.
Gordon, P. & A. Kumar & H.W. Richardson. 1989. "Spatial Mismatch Hypotheses: Some New Evidence," Urban Studies, n26 (1989):315-26.
Gordon, P. & A. Kumar & H.W. Richardson. 1989. "The Influence of Metropolitan Spatial Structure on Commuting Times," Journal of Urban Economics, v26 (1989): 138-49.
Gordon, P. & H. W. Richardson. 1989. "Gasoline Consumption and Cities: A Reply," Journal of the American Planning Association, v55n3 (1989): 342-5.
Gordon, Peter & Harry W Richardson. 1998. Prove It: The Costs and Benefits of Sprawl," The Brookings Review, v16n4 (Fall 1998): 23(3). [Cities have been generating suburbs for as long as records have existed. Most of the world's large cities are growing outward now, and very likely the pace will accelerate in the new age of information networking. Unpopular as the word is in some quarters, it is hard to avoid concluding that sprawl is most people's preferred life-style. Because no one wants to appear to contradict popular choices and interfere with the principle of consumer sovereignty, the critics of sprawl instead blame distorted prices, such as automobile subsidies and mortgage interest deductions, and claimed but unregistered costs of sprawl, such as unpaid-for infrastructure, lost agricultural output, congestion, and dirty air. The cost position, however, is encumbered with at least two problems. First, people are not cost minimizers; costs are traded off for perceived benefits. Second, the costs argument is empirically shaky.]
Gordon, P., H.W. Richardson, and M.J. Jun. 1991. "The Commuting Paradox: Evidence from the Top Twenty," Journal of the American Planning Association, v57n4 (1991): 416-20.
Gudis, Catherine. 2004. Buyways: Automobility, Billboards and the American Cultural Landscape. New York; Routledge.
Hanson, Mark E. 1992. "Automobile Subsidies and Land Use: Estimates and Policy Responses," Journal of the American Planning Association, v58n1 (Winter 1992): 60(12). [Automobile use in the US has been subsidized directly through highway funding policies, and indirectly through externalities and petroleum subsidies. These long-term subsidies, along with other factors, have encouraged a pattern of urban and regional land use characterized by sprawl. An estimate of automobile subsidies, based in part on the detailed reporting requirements under Wisconsin's transportation aid formula and on existing literature, is presented. Long-established urban land theory is used to link subsidies to land use. The automobile subsidies and their effect on travel and land use suggest 2 directions for policy: 1. to eliminate the subsidies, and 2. to reconsider funding of alternative travel modes. Two potential user fees with which current subsidies can be reduced are the registration fee or wheel tax and the gasoline tax.]
Harrington, Winston & Virginia McConnell. 2003. "A Lighter Tread? Policy and Technology Options for Motor Vehicles," Environment, v45n9 (Nov 2003): 22 (17). [Motor vehicles play a conspicuous role in the modern industrial economy, offering rapid, reliable mobility to an ever-growing number of people worldwide. However, automobiles also carry with them many drawbacks. Harrington and McConnell examine how vehicles contribute to environmental problems of air pollution, global warming, and urban sprawl, and assesses policy and technology options for reducing their collective environmental effects.]
Jerome, John. 1972. The Death of the Automobile: The Fatal Effect of the Golden Era, 1955-1970. New York, NY: Norton.
Kay, Jane Holtz. 1997. Asphalt Nation: How the Automobile Took Over America, and How We Can Take It Back. New York: Crown Publishers.
Kenworthy, Jeffrey R. & Felix B. Laube. 1999. An International Sourcebook of Automobile Dependence In
Cities, 1960-1990. Boulder,
CO: University Press of Colorado.
[An updated ed. of:
Cities and automobile dependence, Peter W.G. Newman and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy.
1989.]
Kling, Christian G. 1976. Urban Transportation : Problems and Prospects. New York, NY: Vantage Press.
Kunstler, James H. 1997. "Zoning Procedures and Suburban Sprawl: A Cartoon of A Human Habitat," Vital Speeches of the Day, v64n5 (Dec 15, 1997): 144(5). [The living arrangement Americans now think of as normal suburban sprawl is bankrupting us economically, socially, ecologically, and spiritually. The physical setting itself - the cartoon landscape of car-clogged highways, strip malls, tract houses, franchise fry pits, parking lots, junked cities, and ravaged countryside - is not merely the symptom of a troubled culture, but in many ways the primary cause of our troubles. A new generation of civic leaders and civic designers declares that the public realm matters, and that we must honor it and embellish it with buildings worth caring about, in order to make civic life possible. The form that these New Urbanists envision is both deeply familiar and revolutionary: the mixed-use, pedestrian-scaled neighborhood in increments of villages, towns, and cities.]
Laird, Pamela Walker. 1996. "The Car Without A Single Weakness": Early Automobile Advertising," Technology and Culture, v37n4 (Oct 1996): 796 (17 pages). [Automobile manufacturers in the early 1900s did not feel the need to prove in their advertising that automobility was exciting: They merely featured technical discussions appropriate to a new and expensive, but intimidating technology. They also tried to make the association between a make and prestige.]
Lewis, David L. & Laurence Goldstein (eds.) 1983. The Automobile and American Culture. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.
Litman, Todd. 1998. "Driving Out Subsidies: How Better Pricing of Transportation Options Would Help Protect Our Environment and Benefit Consumers," Alternatives Journal, v24n1 (Winter 1998): 36+. [Economic biases that favour automobile travel over alternative modes should be eliminated as much as possible. For example, current Revenue Canada policies allow most employees to avoid paying income tax on free parking provided by their employers, a benefit worth an estimated $1772 annually in average pre-tax income for an urban employee. 8 There is no comparable tax exemption for transit fares. There would be virtually no cost and numerous benefits if Canadian tax regulations were changed to make employer-provided transit passes tax exempt as they are in most other countries. An even more comprehensive strategy is for employers who provide subsidized parking to offer its cash equivalent to employees who use alternative commute modes, so that commuters who car pool, bicycle or walk would also receive benefits. This is called "cashing out" free parking. It typically results in a 15 to 25 percent reduction in automobile commuting.]
Lowe, M.D. 1990. "Alternatives to the Automobile: Transport for Livable Cities," Ekistics, n344/345 (1990): 269-282.
McShane, Clay. 1994. Down the Asphalt Path: The Automobile and the American City. New York, NY: Columbia University Press.
Newman, Peter W.G. 1992.
"Sustainable Cities: International And Australian Progress - A
Perspective Based On Reducing Automobile Dependence," EcoCity 2 Conference - Adelaide, April 1992. Accessed April 20, 2004. [The role of reduced automobile dependence in
contributing to a more sustainable city is reviewed. Based on threee central
concepts of enhanced rail-based transit, traffic calming and urban villages,
the review outlines progress in each area. Particular mention is made of how
Australian cities are managing.
There is now awareness virtually everywhere of the need to constrain
automobile usage and that it is inherently unsustainable to have urban development
strategies based on continuous growth in the use of cars. This change has come
about mainly from the demands of community groups rather than professionals in
planning and transport. The present stage is predominantly the development of
demonstration projects (such as Better Cities in Australia), where there is a
continuing role for community groups to ensure the concepts are not watered
down. Such changes however will remain largely symbolic unless there is
institutional reform in the way that the land use and transport system is
managed in car-based cities.]
Newman, Peter W.G. & Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. 1989. Cities and Automobile Dependence: A Sourcebook. Aldershot, Hants., England; Brookfield,
VT: Gower Technical.
Newman, Peter W.G. & Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. 1992. "Is There a Role for Physical Planners?" Journal of the American Planning Association, v58n3 (Summer 1992): 353 (10). [In response to criticism about the findings of their book Cities and Automobile Dependence, Peter W. G. Newman and Jeffrey R. Kenworthy seek to explain their research. In response to a review by Gomez-Ibanez (1991), they say that the simplest and most direct way of explaining their approach to urban form and travel is through the relationships between gasoline and density and between gasoline and the provision of transit relative to the provision of roads. That these 2 parameters, one on urban form and one on infrastructure provision, are almost certainly connected would be no surprise. In response to a critique of their work by Gordon and Richardson (1989), instead of adding to their earlier general response, they examine the differences between their approach and that set out in Gordon, Kumar, and Richardson (1989) and Gordon, Richardson and Jun (1991).]
Newman, Peter W.G. & Jeffrey R. Kenworthy. 1999. Sustainability and Cities: Overcoming Automobile
Dependence. Washington, DC:
Island Press.
Nieuwenhuis, Paul & Peter Wells. 1997. The Death of Motoring?: Car Making and Automobility In
the 21st Century. Chichester;
New York: J. Wiley. [Contents: Environmental and Economic Limits on the
Automotive Industry; Markets and
the Future of Car Technology; The Role
of Government; Budd and the
All-Steel Body Paradigm;
Powertrain: Internal Combustion and the Limits of Electric
Vehicles; Concept Cars: Visions of
the Future; Towards the
Environmentally Optimised Vehicle;
The Economic Implications of EOV Technology; The Motor Industry Beyond 2020 and the Death of Motoring?]
OECD.
1986. Environmental
Effects of Automotive Transport: The OECD COMPASS Project. Paris, France: Organisation for
Economic Co-operation and Development.
OÕToole, Randall. 2000. The
Vanishing Automobile and Other Myths: How Smart Growth Will Harm American
Cities. Bandon, OR: Thoreau Institute.
Rajan, Sudhir C. 1996. The
Enigma of Automobility: Democratic Politics and Pollution Control. Pittsburgh, PA: University of
Pittsburgh Press. [Contents: Automobile pollution and
the "cure" of politics -- Automobile regulation and the question of
justice -- Individualism and risks of automobility -- Regulating in-use motor
vehicle pollution in California -- Risk management as a normative enterprise :
regulatory discourse on the older vehicle -- Conclusions : civil society and
automobility.]
Renner, Michael. 1988. Rethinking
the Role of the Automobile.
Washington, DC: Worldwatch Institute.
Schneider, Kenneth R. 1971. Autokind vs. Mankind; An Analysis of Tyranny, A Proposal for Rebellion, A Plan for Reconstruction. New York, NY: Norton.
Volti, Rudi. 1996. "A Century of Automobility," Technology and Culture, v37n4 (Oct 1996): 663 (23 pages). [The history of the automobile illustrates the ways in which technology and culture shape each other. The evolution of the automobile is inseparable from the evolution of roads and has been tightly linked with the suburbanization of America.]
Wachs, Martin & Margaret Crawford (eds.). 1992. The Car and the City: The Automobile, The Built
Environment, and Daily Urban Life.
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press. [Contents:
The car, the city, and daily work. Learning from the past : services to
families / Sam Bass Warner, Jr. -- Truck city / John B. Jackson -- Work and
vehicles : a comment and note / Joseph J. Corn -- The automobile, families, and
daily life. Why working families need a car / Sandra Rosenbloom -- The car's
impact on the American family / Michael L. Berger -- Gender, electricity, and
automobility / Virginia Scharff -- Men, women, and urban travel : the
persistence of separate spheres / Martin Wachs -- The automobile and design.
The suburban house and the automobile / David Gebhard -- A garage in the house
/ Drummond Buckley -- The perils of a parkless town / Richard Longstreth -- The
ultimate status symbol : the custom coachbuilt car in the interwar period /
James J. Flink -- Styling the strip : car and roadside design in the 1950s /
Alan Hess -- The automobile and Los Angeles-- a special relationship. The role
of the automobile in shaping a unique city : another look / Mark S. Foster.
Mass politics and the adoption of the automobile in Los Angeles / Scott Bottles
-- Place and auto manufacture in the post-Fordist era / Rebecca Morales -- The
fifth ecology : fantasy, the automobile, and Los Angeles / Margaret Crawford --
Automobile driving and aggressive behavior / Raymond W. Novaco -- Reflections,
interpretations, anticipations. Designing in car-oriented cities : an argument
for episodic urban congestion / Barton Myers with John Dale -- The joys of
automobility / Melvin M. Webber -- The car, the city, and what we want / Marvin
Adelson.]
Willson,
Richard W. 1995. "Suburban Parking Requirements: A Tacit
Policy for Automobile Use and Sprawl,"
Journal of the American Planning Association, v61n1 (Winter 1995): 29(14). [Local
parking requirements are a tacit policy for automobile use and sprawl that goes
far beyond the question of how to accommodate parked vehicles. Reformed parking
requirements could be a powerful factor in supporting a community's goals.
Parking policy reform has been slow because automobile drivers benefit from the
current approach. Local jurisdictions should measure demand levels in their own
communities before reforming requirements. Parking demand will vary by locality
and by type of use. Local jurisdictions should measure the inventory of unused
parking in their major activity centers. Having examined local conditions,
jurisdictions could then implement 2 main types of reform: 1. eliminate minimum
requirements and let the private market determine how much parking to provide,
while appropriately pricing and controlling on-street parking, and 2. reduce
parking requirements to match average demand levels more closely.]
[Last Update: April 20, 2004]