The need for effective public transport is greater than ever in the 21st century. With countries like China and India moving towards mass-automobility, we face the prospects of an environmental and urban health disaster unless alternatives are found. It is time to move beyond the automobile age. But while public transport has worked well in the dense cores of some big cities, the problem is that most residents of developed countries now live in dispersed suburbs and smaller cities and towns. These places usually have little or no public transport, and most transport commentators have given up on the task of changing this: it all seems too hard. This book argues that the secret of 'European-style' public transport lies in a generalizable model of network planning that has worked in places as diverse as rural Switzerland, the Brazilian city of Curitiba and the Canadian cities of Toronto and Vancouver. It shows how this model can be adapted to suburban, exurban and even rural areas to provide a genuine alternative to the car, and outlines the governance, funding and service planning policies that underpin the success of the world's best public transport systems.

Suburban Sprawl combines historical, political, economic, geographic, and urban planning analysis to provide the most comprehensive overview of why and how urban sprawl occurs. It shows that all previous attempts to pin the blame on one or two causes - "highway building" or "consumer preferences" - totally miss the complex and interwoven character of public policy and private interests in creating today's urban form. The authors have included the detailed analyses of expenditures which show that federal housing subsidies have contributed significantly to sprawl in the post-war period, as well as a comprehensive overview of policies that can be used to reduce sprawl or reduce its negative consequences. This book will inform the growing policy community involved in regionalism and the general urban policy community. It can also be assigned in undergraduate and graduate level classes in urban sociology, geography, urban politics, and urban planning.