Why the hell is America's public transportation so terrible?
That's today's big question, and my guest is Nicholas Dagen Bloom.
He's the author of the subtly titled new book, the Great American Transit Disaster. Nicholas is a professor of urban policy and planning at Hunter College. He's the author of a bunch of books including Public Housing That Worked, The Metropolitan Airport and How States Shaped Post-War America. He's also the co-editor of the prize-winning Public Housing Myths and Affordable Housing in New York.
This new book, the Great American Transit Disaster (out now) is a deep dive into how we got here, and the overwhelming evidence that transit divestment was a choice rather than destiny, with a lot of actors involved.
The willful divestment over the past 100 years to purposefully build out our car culture today drives a full third of our greenhouse gas emissions.
Undoing it won't be an easy or simple task.
But the good news is, there are multi solving opportunities everywhere for not only less racism and fewer emissions, but for more and better housing everywhere, for better and more plentiful, safer transportation options, and for healthier bodies and minds.
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INI Book Club:
• The Great American Transit Disaster (https://bookshop.org/a/8952/9780226824406) by Nicholas Dagen Bloom
• Walkable City Rules (https://bookshop.org/a/8952/9781610918985) by Jeff Speck
• Find all of our guest recommendations at the INI Book Club: https://bookshop.org/lists/important-not-important-book-club
Links:
• Connect with Nicholas (https://www.hunterurban.org/faculty/nicholas-dagen-bloom) and follow more of his work
• Read David Zipper's Bloomberg piece (https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-04-27/chronicling-of-the-collapse-of-public-transit-in-the-us) on Nick's book, and follow David's other transit work (https://www.bloomberg.com/authors/AVmeJNnmkY0/david-zipper)
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• Edited by Anthony Luciani (https://anthonyluciani.com)
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• Intro/outro by Tim Blane: timblane.com (http://timblane.com/)
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