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9781642832402

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Autonorama is a 'road-switch' for a human-powered age, showing that safer, more livable cities will be achieved not by the tech in our cars, but by our actions on our streets. --Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates and former commissioner, NYC Dept. of Transportation Autonorama is a thought-provoking, timely, and profoundly important book that will enable readers to avoid being taken in by false promises of high-speed, delay-free cities for drivers. Peter Norton reveals how the pursuit of self-driving cars is not only unrealistic; it's a dangerous distraction from far cheaper, healthier, sustainable, and equitable transportation solutions. --Sally Flocks, Founder & Former President, Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS) Autonorama is a timely reminder from a first-class mind that, like the cartoon dog catching the car, realizing the 60-year-old dream of autonomous driving can only ever be a disappointment. Norton demonstrates that the snake-oil promises of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion hide the goal of perpetual and damaging car dependency. He also shows that the urban mobility modes too often degraded and therefore despised--public transit, walkability, bicycling-- would bloom if only they were funded with a fraction of the financial love lavished for too long on automobility. --Carlton Reid, Senior Sustainability Contributor, Forbes.com; author of Roads Were Not Built for Cars and Bike Boom

This is a bracing challenge to the dogma of autonomous vehicle enthusiasts and a clarion call for more varied and humane mobility solutions. -- Booklist Norton ... concludes that the only way to end the vices caused by automobile dependency is to reduce automobile dependency itself--to rebuild public transit and facilitate walking and cycling, so that Americans have the same level of transportation choice as Europeans and Asians. -- Planetizen Two decades into the 21st-century, we should heed Norton's warnings about Autonorama, turn our backs on car culture, and begin the rewarding task of reclaiming urban space for efficient public transit, safe cycling, and healthy and stress-free walking. -- Resilience [Norton's] contention that the public is being sold a bill of goods that further reinforces car dependency and freedom against alternative options that are more environmentally and socially friendly creates a thought-provoking analysis of the underlying influences of car company business interests on future choices. -- Donovan's Literary Services Offering iconoclastic arguments that are well worth our attention, Autonorama: The Illusory Promise of High-Tech Driving by Professor Peter Norton is especially and unreservedly recommended for community, college, and university library Automotive History and Contemporary Social Issues collections. -- Midwest Book Review Autonorama is a 'road-switch' for a human-powered age, showing that safer, more livable cities will be achieved not by the tech in our cars, but by our actions on our streets. --Janette Sadik-Khan, Bloomberg Associates and former commissioner, NYC Dept. of Transportation Autonorama is a thought-provoking, timely, and profoundly important book that will enable readers to avoid being taken in by false promises of high-speed, delay-free cities for drivers. Peter Norton reveals how the pursuit of self-driving cars is not only unrealistic; it's a dangerous distraction from far cheaper, healthier, sustainable, and equitable transportation solutions. --Sally Flocks, Founder & Former President, Pedestrians Educating Drivers on Safety (PEDS) Autonorama is a timely reminder from a first-class mind that, like the cartoon dog catching the car, realizing the 60-year-old dream of autonomous driving can only ever be a disappointment. Norton demonstrates that the snake-oil promises of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion hide the goal of perpetual and damaging car dependency. He also shows that the urban mobility modes too often degraded and therefore despised--public transit, walkability, bicycling-- would bloom if only they were funded with a fraction of the financial love lavished for too long on automobility. --Carlton Reid, Senior Sustainability Contributor, Forbes.com; author of Roads Were Not Built for Cars and Bike Boom

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Peter Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He has authored many articles, book chapters, and the book Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.

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