While doing research on urban traffic congestion I came across Samuel Schwartz’s book Street Smart: The Rise of Cities and the Fall of Cars. At first, I was hesitant to purchase the book, it seemed to really exceed my needs – 292 pages on smart streets only.
Samuel Schwartz.
Photo from Gridlock Sam’s Facebook page.
But the title is a bit deceptive as this book is about much more than street design. It is an explanation of American Culture, and its early obsession with roads and cars; beyond this, it is a deep dive into the movement created by millennials who seem to be willing to drive less and share more resources. Schwartz takes an in-depth look at the national dialogue about transportation. Millennials, in the decisions they make about where to live and what they buy (or don’t buy–i.e.cars), are demonstrating they want to drive less and are interested in sharing more resources.
Schwartz, one of the leading transportation experts in the US and an avid proponent of intelligent transportation systems, is thrilled by the potential inherent in a shift in citizens’ mentality and the ability to collect and use data to implement change. In probably the most eye-opening chapter, “What makes a smart city?” Schwartz dives deep into what the potential for cities is. With examples ranging from the obvious European “star smart cities” like Copenhagen, Zurich, and Amsterdam, Schwartz makes us understand that functioning cities, which do not condemn residents to sit behind a steering wheel for hours at a time, are also really possible in the US.
- Los Angeles has become the most promising mega city to build a smart public transportation system.
- Salt Lake City, with its “Envision Utah” initiative bet on walking and transit solutions back in 1997 and is now being seen as the best large public transportation system in the US.
- New initiatives in many smaller US cities like Boston, Austin, and San Francisco also demonstrate the potential for change.
Mobility apps ranging from CityMapper and TransitAPP to Google Maps are connecting the dots for cities and citizens alike, and Schwartz puts emphasis on the seemingly unlimited opportunities brought by technologies to make living in urban areas more attractive and healthier.
Reading the book, I came to admire Samuel Schwartz’s amazing–probably excruciatingly difficult–efforts over the past 40+ years to change the way Americans (and New York mayors) think about transportation as centered solely around the car and its ever-growing need for more and bigger streets. He made me laugh when he talked about his “many acts of municipal sabotage” erasing an existing road that cut through a New York park from a map. I was astonished to learn that he had the first bike lanes in New York built in the early ’80s (on 5th Avenue) and that Mayor Ed Koch ultimately ordered that they be taken away.
Photo from the NACTO Facebook page.
The book provided fresh motivation as I continued to look for solutions to eliminate traffic. Even in a city like New York, arguably the most walkable US city with an amazing public transportation system, an unbelievable number of 300,000 schoolchildren are being driven to school. At GoKid we are determined to decrease the number of cars on the street by creating good old-fashioned carpools using the smartest possible technology solutions in our app. We appreciate your support and feedback as we continue to analyze user data to make the app better and smarter.
