Robert Cervero documents the rise in suburban traffic around the country and examines the role of various planning, design, and management approaches in defining the automobile's growing presence in suburbia. The book highlights suburban business complexes and mixed-use centers throughout the United States that have been planned and designed to reduce auto dependency and to promote ridesharing, transit usage, and other commuting alternatives.Steps taken by various municipalities to enlist the support of private interests in reducing employee trip-making and financing area-wide roadway improvements are also examined. While the analysis is national in scope, detailed case studies offer in-depth insights into the many institutional and logistical problems involved in mitigating the impact of suburban congestion.The transportation planning profession has historically focused its attention and resources on downtown access and mobility problems. Suburbs, and places beyond, have long been considered havens for travel, free from traffic jams, and ideal for leisurely weekend excursions. Over the years, transportation planning in suburbia has involved little more than adding new projects to five-year capital improvement programs. This book remains essential for planners, administrators, and citizens interested in the future of suburbia and safeguarding it from the coming transportation crisis.

Originally published: New Brunswick, N.J.: Center for Urban Policy Research, c1986.

A Brookings Institution Press and Lincoln Institute of Land Policy publication Peak-hour traffic congestion has become a major problem in most U.S. cities. In fact, a majority of residents in metropolitan and suburban areas consider congestion their most serious local problem. As citizens have become increasingly frustrated by repeated traffic delays that cost them money and waste time, congestion has become an important factor affecting local government policies in many parts of the nation. In this new book, Anthony Downs looks at the causes of worsening traffic congestion, especially in suburban areas, and considers the possible remedies. He analyzes the specific advantages and disadvantages of every major strategy that has been proposed to reduce congestion. In nontechnical language, he focuses on two central issues: the relationships between land-use and traffic flow in rapidly growing areas, and whether local policies can effectively reduce congestion or if more regional approaches are necessary. In rapidly growing parts of the country, congestion is worse than it was five or ten years ago. But Downs notes that the problem has apparently not yet become bad enough to stimulate effective responses. Neither government officials nor citizens seem willing to consider changing the behavior and public policies that cause congestion. To alleviate the problem, both groups must be prepared to make these fundamental changes. Selected by Choice as an Outstanding Book of 1992

Originally published in 1989, America’s Suburban Centers looks at how America’s suburban workplaces are being increasingly designed for automobiles rather than people. The emergence of sprawling office complexes devoid of housing, shops and other facilities is giving rise to regional congestion problems because of the ever-greater dependence on automobiles. This book argues that the low-density, single-use, and non-integrated character of America’s suburban centers is a root cause of declining levels of mobility and worsening traffic congestion.