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Carfree Cities
In this volume filled with historical and contemporary references to guiding historic precedents and ideological errors of 20th-century planning, the author sets up the carfree city as the cornerstone of sustainable development. This book outlines a structure carefully designed to maximize the quality of life for people and communities worldwide. Also available in cloth, 9057270374.
324 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 2000
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
May 5, 2009
It's sort of a dream- but what a beautiful dream.
It's odd to think that just a short time ago and for centuries and centuries ALL cities were carfree!
Wow, how much we've digressed!
The picture that he paints is quite amazing! Maybe far fetched, but it would be a beautiful place in which to live.
It's odd to think that just a short time ago and for centuries and centuries ALL cities were carfree!
Wow, how much we've digressed!
The picture that he paints is quite amazing! Maybe far fetched, but it would be a beautiful place in which to live.
November 18, 2023
The book presents a neat carfree city design. However, for all its criticism of car-dependency, it sorely lacks a theory of why urban development has taken a car-dependent form in the first place.
The design centers on an efficient metro topology that uses three lines and three central stations, making all trips within the city possible with only a single cross-platform transfer. All locations within the city are a 5-minute walk from a metro station, allowing all city trips to be under 35 minutes door-to-door, even with a 4-story building height limit and 1M population. And all locations are within a 5-minute walk to abundant green space. Other neat insights include the fact that down-sloping tracks from stations allows for higher rates of acceleration without increasing passenger discomfort.
The book has many arguments for the beneficial effects of walkability, proximity, and density on physical and mental health, social fabric, access to green space, and city aesthetics. However, its explanation of the car-dependent status quo is shallow, amounting to little more than “people wanted cars.” Juxtaposed with the sharp criticism of car dependency, this statement leaves the reader wondering if the carfree city actually addresses the harmful forces that lead to suburban sprawl in the first place.
To this end, the book could be strengthened with a review of urban land values, the economics of the center and the edge (Ricardo’s Law of Rent), and a history of how land monopoly in cities pushed development to the suburban “frontier” when cars became commonplace after WWII. We now live at a time where the frontier can no longer be so easily extended. The carfree city design embodies this difficulty, as we are now considering the creation of new cities to escape our problems. Addressing the unjust private capture of urban land value can enable us to achieve the goals of the carfree city without further extending the frontier to new greenfield city development.
Despite this flaw, the engineering ideas presented in the book are fun to think about and stimulate the imagination of a more equitable and livable urban environment.
The design centers on an efficient metro topology that uses three lines and three central stations, making all trips within the city possible with only a single cross-platform transfer. All locations within the city are a 5-minute walk from a metro station, allowing all city trips to be under 35 minutes door-to-door, even with a 4-story building height limit and 1M population. And all locations are within a 5-minute walk to abundant green space. Other neat insights include the fact that down-sloping tracks from stations allows for higher rates of acceleration without increasing passenger discomfort.
The book has many arguments for the beneficial effects of walkability, proximity, and density on physical and mental health, social fabric, access to green space, and city aesthetics. However, its explanation of the car-dependent status quo is shallow, amounting to little more than “people wanted cars.” Juxtaposed with the sharp criticism of car dependency, this statement leaves the reader wondering if the carfree city actually addresses the harmful forces that lead to suburban sprawl in the first place.
To this end, the book could be strengthened with a review of urban land values, the economics of the center and the edge (Ricardo’s Law of Rent), and a history of how land monopoly in cities pushed development to the suburban “frontier” when cars became commonplace after WWII. We now live at a time where the frontier can no longer be so easily extended. The carfree city design embodies this difficulty, as we are now considering the creation of new cities to escape our problems. Addressing the unjust private capture of urban land value can enable us to achieve the goals of the carfree city without further extending the frontier to new greenfield city development.
Despite this flaw, the engineering ideas presented in the book are fun to think about and stimulate the imagination of a more equitable and livable urban environment.
March 31, 2022
Carfree cities really excite me because they would solve many environmental and social issues at the root of the problem. It is not a silver bullet, but certainly one of the best solutions that works well with many others.
The author covers a lot of ground and backs up the proposal with preliminary numbers. The book composition makes it easy it to read.
My only critiques are:
1. The reference city is a good starting point, but I would have preferred several such designs, to include examples that were more real-world than ideal, and compromises for more bicycling, less metro, or some automobile traffic. The author did include examples of all of these, but generally only one or two.
2. This book is a bit dated now. I would like to see a compendium of carfree cities and areas that are already developed for in-depth examination and comparison.
3. Some points made by the author were revisited perhaps too often.
The author covers a lot of ground and backs up the proposal with preliminary numbers. The book composition makes it easy it to read.
My only critiques are:
1. The reference city is a good starting point, but I would have preferred several such designs, to include examples that were more real-world than ideal, and compromises for more bicycling, less metro, or some automobile traffic. The author did include examples of all of these, but generally only one or two.
2. This book is a bit dated now. I would like to see a compendium of carfree cities and areas that are already developed for in-depth examination and comparison.
3. Some points made by the author were revisited perhaps too often.
June 13, 2023
I’ve gone down the urban planning rabbit hole and have been watching many You Tube videos so this book gave me little “new” information but still good read. Get cars out of cities. Book offers ideas on tram train planning. We must improve public transport systems using trains not buses in order to compete with cars. In an ideal world a tram would come along every few seconds to whisk you to your destination without having to learn schedules. Suburbia discussed- along with tax issues. Human density and energy consumption are inversely correlated.
May 25, 2020
It was fine, but felt like a very limited perspective - he pretty much wrote off contemporary downtown areas as bleak ghettoes early on and in the absence of explicit discussion of class (or race or gender etc) it felt like all the ideas were centered around how to appeal to the (presumably white) middle & upper class. Props for advocating free public transit though!
December 23, 2022
A fantastic handbook showing how there really are practical alternatives that would work, be more energy efficient and more pleasant to live in, than our car dominated city designs.
November 22, 2018
Al van de begindagen van de grootschalige verspreiding van het internet, pakweg vanaf 1997, bestond er een website over autovrije steden die me erg intrigeerde: carfree.com. De maker van de website schreef er ook een boek over, die meer tekst bij zijn ideeën toevoegt. Zo gek is het idee eigenlijk niet, als je bedenkt dat tot voor 110 jaar alle steden autovrij waren. De auteur onderlijnt dat auto's hun nut hebben buiten de stad, maar dat het de slechtst mogelijke vorm van vervoer is binnen de stad.
Het 300 p. dikke boek bestaat uit drie delen. In het eerste deel geeft de auteur de argumenten voor autovrije steden; in het tweede deel geeft hij redelijk gedetailleerd weer hoe zo'n stad functioneert. Hij noemt dit het "referentie-ontwerp", met een beschrijving en berekeningen van de ideale grootte van zo'n stad, de grootte van een wijk en het ontwerp van de wijk en de straten; daarna zoomt hij in op het vervoer van personen (inclusief aparte gevallen zoals het vervoer van gewonden of het vervoer van VIP's) en het vervoer van goederen. In grote mate functioneert zijn autovrije stad met openbaar vervoer, en hij geeft daar twee redenen voor: niet iedereen fietst even graag, en als er veel fietsers zijn, moeten ook veel fietsen geparkeerd worden, die op den duur visuele en fysieke hinder geven, zoals auto's dat nu doen. In het laatste deel geeft de auteur aan welke stappen er gezet kunnen/moeten worden om tot autovrije steden te komen.
Het boek is naar mijn mening erg gedetailleerd en het tweede deel is door de vele specificaties zelfs moeilijk te lezen. Het enige dat me echt mijn wenkbrauwen deed fronsen is zijn standpunt tegen fietsen in de stad. De belangrijkste kritiek die ik heb is echter dat dit boek gaat over een stad die van nul gebouwd moet worden; terloops geeft hij in deel drie wel aan hoe bestaande steden aan het referentie-ontwerp kunnen aangepast worden, maar dat zijn maar enkele pagina's in het dikke boek. Zo blijft het een theoretische oefening, waar de auteur wel exceptioneel veel werk in heeft gestoken - tot en met het maken van een schaalmodel van bepaalde delen, tekeningen in Illustrator, het fotograferen van vele pleinen en straten en het behoorlijk in detail berekenen van maatstaven voor autovrije steden.
J.H. Crawford, geboren in de V.S. maar nu levend in Europa, deed kunstschool, volgde daarna een opleiding in sociaal werk en heeft een brede belangstelling in architectuur, stedenbouw, fotografie, illustratie en beleid. Al zijn talenten kwamen hem goed te pas toen hij dit boek schreef, waardoor het wel een erg volledig boek werd. Maar omdat hij zijn ideeën nog verder kon ontwikkelen, schreef hij acht jaar later nog een tweede boek "Carfree Design Manual".
Het 300 p. dikke boek bestaat uit drie delen. In het eerste deel geeft de auteur de argumenten voor autovrije steden; in het tweede deel geeft hij redelijk gedetailleerd weer hoe zo'n stad functioneert. Hij noemt dit het "referentie-ontwerp", met een beschrijving en berekeningen van de ideale grootte van zo'n stad, de grootte van een wijk en het ontwerp van de wijk en de straten; daarna zoomt hij in op het vervoer van personen (inclusief aparte gevallen zoals het vervoer van gewonden of het vervoer van VIP's) en het vervoer van goederen. In grote mate functioneert zijn autovrije stad met openbaar vervoer, en hij geeft daar twee redenen voor: niet iedereen fietst even graag, en als er veel fietsers zijn, moeten ook veel fietsen geparkeerd worden, die op den duur visuele en fysieke hinder geven, zoals auto's dat nu doen. In het laatste deel geeft de auteur aan welke stappen er gezet kunnen/moeten worden om tot autovrije steden te komen.
Het boek is naar mijn mening erg gedetailleerd en het tweede deel is door de vele specificaties zelfs moeilijk te lezen. Het enige dat me echt mijn wenkbrauwen deed fronsen is zijn standpunt tegen fietsen in de stad. De belangrijkste kritiek die ik heb is echter dat dit boek gaat over een stad die van nul gebouwd moet worden; terloops geeft hij in deel drie wel aan hoe bestaande steden aan het referentie-ontwerp kunnen aangepast worden, maar dat zijn maar enkele pagina's in het dikke boek. Zo blijft het een theoretische oefening, waar de auteur wel exceptioneel veel werk in heeft gestoken - tot en met het maken van een schaalmodel van bepaalde delen, tekeningen in Illustrator, het fotograferen van vele pleinen en straten en het behoorlijk in detail berekenen van maatstaven voor autovrije steden.
J.H. Crawford, geboren in de V.S. maar nu levend in Europa, deed kunstschool, volgde daarna een opleiding in sociaal werk en heeft een brede belangstelling in architectuur, stedenbouw, fotografie, illustratie en beleid. Al zijn talenten kwamen hem goed te pas toen hij dit boek schreef, waardoor het wel een erg volledig boek werd. Maar omdat hij zijn ideeën nog verder kon ontwikkelen, schreef hij acht jaar later nog een tweede boek "Carfree Design Manual".
May 18, 2016
Medieval urban planners used "utopian" schemes to draw new schemes for cities. J.H. Crawford gives an excellent and sometimes rediculously obvious comparison between modern-day car-oriented urban sprawl-like cities (the example used is L.A.) and old medieval cities (Venice, Italy). In doing so he points out the hopelessness of sprawl and the great charmes of classical ("walkable") urban form. Subsequently Crawford uses the "utopian" format to create a city of one million, based on a walkable district combined with high-quality public transport . In a way one might say he created an antidote for LE Corbusier's "Ville Radieuse" and Wright's "Broadacre City" and proved there is an other way than yust the highway. This book very much inspired me, as a professional urban planner and mobility-expert.
November 28, 2009
Really great theoretical book on how we can design cities and neighborhoods to function without cars. This book has totally inspired me and I want to move to Amsterdam to get in touch with him and tap into the carfree network. I'm also thinking about going to grad school for city planning. This book is best for someone who is into living without cars and also into design. If you like romance novels, only, this book is not for you. If you like new ideas, it is.
Awesome book that I'll probably read again, someday. I've become a member of the carfree network.
Awesome book that I'll probably read again, someday. I've become a member of the carfree network.
February 2, 2010
Ever want to build a city with NO cars? Ever start thinking about how you would even accomplish such a thing, only to stop because you realize there is A LOT to it? Crawford deals with all of it, providing research to back up his opinions, but also entertaining opposing ideas, explaining how many aren't bad, but why he chose what he did anyway. Very cool book.
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May 20, 2010Carfree Cities - J.H. Crawford
This is quite good and wide ranging. It helped me in dropping my car too.
This is quite good and wide ranging. It helped me in dropping my car too.
June 17, 2012
Along with Christopher Alexander, a great tool for liberating you imagination from it's current constraints.
November 11, 2012
Utopian. Quite impractical given our current cultural obsessions, but I would live in and put money towards this sort of urban development, unquestionably.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews