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From local bike-sharing initiatives to overhauls of transport infrastructure, mobility is one of the most important areas in which modern cities are trying to realize a more sustainable future. Yet even as politicians and planners look ahead, there remain critical insights to be gleaned from the history of urban mobility and the unsustainable practices that still impact our everyday lives. United by their pursuit of a "usable past," the studies in this interdisciplinary collection consider the ecological, social, and economic aspects of urban mobility, showing how historical inquiry can make both conceptual and practical contributions to the projects of sustainability and urban renewal.
List of contents
Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Historicizing Sustainable Urban Mobility
Frank Schipper, Martin Emanuel, and Ruth Oldenziel SECTION I: SELLING UNSUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITY Chapter 1. Designing (Un)Sustainable Urban Mobility from Transnational Settings, 1850-Present
Ruth Oldenziel, M. Luísa Sousa, and Pieter van Wesemael Chapter 2. History as Motordom's Tool of Agenda Legitimation: Twentieth-Century U.S. Urban Mobility Trajectories
Peter Norton Chapter 3. Railway Modernism Losing Out: Lessons from an English Conurbation, 1955-1975
Colin Divall SECTION II: RECOVERING SUSTAINABLE MOBILITIES OF THE PAST Chapter 4. Pedestrian Stories: Recovering Sustainable Urban Mobility
Colin Pooley Chapter 5. Load Story: A Century of Pedestrian Logistics in Toulouse
Franck Cochoy, Roland Canu, and Cédric Calvignac Chapter 6. Recovering Sustainable Mobility Practices: A Visual History of Turku's Streetscape 1950-1980
Tiina Männistö-Funk SECTION III: PERSISTENCE AND SUSTAINABLE URBAN MOBILITIES Chapter 7. State Socialism and Sustainable Urban Mobility: Alternative Paths in St Petersburg since the 1880s
Alexandra Bekasova, Julia Kulikova, and Martin Emanuel Chapter 8. Liveable Streets and Hidden Unsustainability: The Biography of a Street in Stockholm
Martin Emanuel Chapter 9. Green Urban Spaces and Sustainable Mobility: Parks as Pockets of Persistence since the 1830s
Frank Schipper SECTION IV: RESEARCH AGENDAS FOR THE FUTURE Chapter 10. Mobility Justice and the Velomobile Commons in Urban America
Mimi Sheller Chapter 11. Toward a Long-Term Measurement System of Sustainable Urban Mobility
Appendix: Sources for Measuring Historical Sustainable Mobility
Jan-Pieter Smits and Frank Veraart Epilogue: Reflections from a Policy Perspective
Hans Jeekel and Bert Toussaint Index
About the author
Martin Emanuel is a historian of technology affiliated with the Department of Economic History, Uppsala University with a profile on mobility, urban, and tourism history. He is the author of
Trafikslag på undantag: Cykeltrafiken i Stockholm 1930-1980 [Excluded through Planning: Bicycle Traffic in Stockholm 1930-1980] (2012) and co-author of
Cycling Cities: The European Experience (2016).
Summary
Unsustainable practices since the Industrial Revolution still impact our everyday lives. This book looks at how we can achieve sustainable urban mobility now and in the future by tapping into our knowledge of the historical trajectories leading up to the features of modern mobility in cities today.
