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A review by rivertonrat
Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town by Charles L. Marohn Jr.
challenging
informative
inspiring
medium-paced
4.5
This book was a good read. On an anti-automobile crusade, I've been reading lots of books about transportation problems and solutions, and am finding that both the problems and the solutions may be perceived differently by various writers. Some points from this book that were thought-provoking (for me):
1) I am not an engineer but worked in an engineering environment (software systems for quality control) and his opinions on engineering struck a chord. His chart comparing transportation engineering priorities (most important - travel speed & traffic volume) vs human values (most important - safety & cost) reinforces the notion that our roads do not take pedestrian or cyclist safety seriously. Not because it is impossible but because the characteristics to be measured are defined with an auto-centric view,
2) Error Proofing is another engineering practice I admire, but it was so interesting to see how priorities skewed the results - we widen and flatten roads, clear the sightlines and remove obstacles to prevent cars from running into things. But perversely, the clear path encourages speeding and a diminished sense of risk, often leading to tragic consequences.
3) A basic tenet of the book was that Roads and Streets should not be intermixed. Roads were defined as highly travelled roads suited for speed that enabled a travel to get from point A to point B and streets defined as more of a destination, useful for residences, shops, restaurants - walkable and social. An interstate highway with limited access is a perfect road, with limited access and minimal maneuverability (no turn-lanes, intersections, etc.) , thus allowing for higher speeds. When we try to combine the two, we get a stroad - a street with housing or places of business that require many access points and intersections, but with the high speeds that characterize a road. Wrecks are common on stroads. I have heard of the stroad concept, but thought the definition here was very helpful. It makes me wonder how we can rework current street layouts to address this and if that is even feasible.
4) Projects are driven by funding sources and poorly understood incentives, and a "successful" project can wreak havoc in any number of ways.
5) His main argument rested on evaluating success as a metric of wealth creation: basically seeing transportation as an expense or liability that was only useful if it added to the economic wellbeing of the location that was footing the bill. This was a new way of looking at it for me, and it made sense, but other authors address this from an environmental or quality of life aspect. So some of his conclusions are a little different from others.
Bottom line - it is a pretty quick read and very well worth it for anyone who walks, bikes or drives. Really makes you look at street infrastructure differently.
1) I am not an engineer but worked in an engineering environment (software systems for quality control) and his opinions on engineering struck a chord. His chart comparing transportation engineering priorities (most important - travel speed & traffic volume) vs human values (most important - safety & cost) reinforces the notion that our roads do not take pedestrian or cyclist safety seriously. Not because it is impossible but because the characteristics to be measured are defined with an auto-centric view,
2) Error Proofing is another engineering practice I admire, but it was so interesting to see how priorities skewed the results - we widen and flatten roads, clear the sightlines and remove obstacles to prevent cars from running into things. But perversely, the clear path encourages speeding and a diminished sense of risk, often leading to tragic consequences.
3) A basic tenet of the book was that Roads and Streets should not be intermixed. Roads were defined as highly travelled roads suited for speed that enabled a travel to get from point A to point B and streets defined as more of a destination, useful for residences, shops, restaurants - walkable and social. An interstate highway with limited access is a perfect road, with limited access and minimal maneuverability (no turn-lanes, intersections, etc.) , thus allowing for higher speeds. When we try to combine the two, we get a stroad - a street with housing or places of business that require many access points and intersections, but with the high speeds that characterize a road. Wrecks are common on stroads. I have heard of the stroad concept, but thought the definition here was very helpful. It makes me wonder how we can rework current street layouts to address this and if that is even feasible.
4) Projects are driven by funding sources and poorly understood incentives, and a "successful" project can wreak havoc in any number of ways.
5) His main argument rested on evaluating success as a metric of wealth creation: basically seeing transportation as an expense or liability that was only useful if it added to the economic wellbeing of the location that was footing the bill. This was a new way of looking at it for me, and it made sense, but other authors address this from an environmental or quality of life aspect. So some of his conclusions are a little different from others.
Bottom line - it is a pretty quick read and very well worth it for anyone who walks, bikes or drives. Really makes you look at street infrastructure differently.