By Alan Thein Durning

“Everyone who lives in a city needs to read this book.”- Steve Ransom, The Center for Appropriate Transport

Note: The Car and the City is out of print, but you can download the pdf version for free.

Many people recognize that the increasing number of automobiles is choking our cities—polluting our air, endangering our streets, and isolating us from our communities. This book shows how resurgent cities could make cars work again, and even solve problems ranging from oil wars to urban decay, rising seas to violent crime. Not just an analytic approach to economic and environmental urban concerns, The Car and the City is an offbeat journey through three great metropolises. Seattle, Portland, and Vancouver—by car, train, bicycle, and foot. It’s a fascinating conversation with people who are quietly, but radically, rearranging the furniture of the modern city.

Also see Sightline’s fact sheet, More Parks, Less Parking, which describes how small changes to parking policy can make a big difference.

Alan Durning is executive director of Sightline.

April 13, 1996