Dark Age Ahead by JANE JACOBS (kottke.org on books)
Jane Jacobs hates cars. Absolutely can’t stand them. I thought this book was about a possible coming dark age, not her dislike of automobiles.
Alas, perhaps Jason Kottke is too subtle for me, but this is the second review I have read that seems to think Jacobs’ new book is about cars. I finished it last night and even having read a really lame writeup that complained that the whole book was about her dislike of cars, I still didn’t get that.
What she dislikes/hates is the accomodations we as a society (in North America) have made to cars instead of to people and communities. She’s pointing that choices were made to favor auto users over everyone else in many cases and we’re all poorer for it. Her insights into “traffic engineering” are eye-opening, especially here in a state where a vocal minority thinks that more and wider roads are the answer to every question.
But there’s more to the book than that — much more — I recommend it.