Book review: Moving People: Sustainable Transport Development – Peter Cox (2010)

Moving People looks at the impacts of transport and offers an introduction into how the area can be made more sustainable – as well as the benefits of doing so.

Author Peter Cox argues that the area of sustainable transport will always require development in order to meet changing needs, populations and external circumstances. As a result, cities and countries, both in developing and industrialised nations, will have to continuously adapt their transport solutions.

He writes, “The problem of the current pattern of automobility as a transport solution is that it is an inflexible solution, dominated by oil-dependent internal-combustion engines located in inefficient vehicles, wasteful of space and energy, and creators of intolerable amounts of toxic pollutants and noise.”

Moving People gives a good overview of how the sector has developed in the last few years and thoroughly explains technologies and the progress in a way that is easy to grasp and understand. It includes a wide variety of case studies from both emerging and developed nations, such as examining Delhi in the context of mobility in a megacity.

Cox concludes, “People are the most important factor in bringing about changes towards more sustainable futures. Technologies have their place and are vital to enable people to live more sustainably. But technologies alone do not forge change.”

The text would be of interest to anyone concerned about the current transport sector and the wider impacts and implications such as global warming, future oil supplies and population growth.