"What's transportation for? This is a question that highway engineers apparently never ask themselves: probably because they take for granted the belief that transportation exists for the purpose of providing suitable outlets for the motorcar industry. To increase the number of cars, to enable motorists to go longer distances to more places, at higher speeds, has become an end in itself. Does this over employment of the motorcar not consume ever larger quantities of gas, oil concrete, rubber, and steel, and so provide the very groundwork for an expanding economy? Certainly but none of these make up the essential purpose of transportation. The purpose of transportation is to bring people or goods to places where they are needed, and to concentrate the greatest variety of goods and people within a limited area, in order to widen the possibility of choice without making it necessary to travel. A good transportation system minimizes unnecessary transportation" - Lewis Mumford, 1958 (Thanks to Dan Piatkowski for directing me to this great quote!) John Simmerman Doug Gordon Chris Bruntlett Melissa Bruntlett Peter Norton Kea Wilson Bridget Doran Carlos Moreno Dr. Mélissa Mialon Katja Diehl Seth LaJeunesse Brent Toderian Tom Flood Paris Marx Source: https://lnkd.in/dZtdpzED
“The illusion that economic models can ignore use-values springs from the assumption that those activities which we designate by intransitive verbs can be indefinitely replaced by institutionally defined staples referred to as nouns: ‘education’ substituted for ‘I learn’, ‘healthcare’ for ‘I heal’, ‘transportation’ for ‘I move’, ‘television’ for ‘I play’” -Neil Postman
Today, there is a multitude of toxic chemicals added to tires and other components many of which were not as prevalent in the 1950s … adding to the polluting impact. ‘The painstaking parsing of 6PPD and 6PPD-q was just the beginning of a global campaign to understand the toxic cocktail of organic chemicals, tiny particles, and heavy metals hiding in tires and, to a lesser extent, brakes. While the acute toxicity of 6PPD-q and its source have strong scientific consensus, tire rubber contains more than 400 chemicals and compounds, many of them carcinogenic, and research is only beginning to show how widespread the problems from tire dust may be.’ https://e360.yale.edu/features/tire-pollution-toxic-chemicals
Insightful message today. Visionary message in 1958! Possibly one of the most important design principles/guidelines is: “A good transportation system minimizes unnecessary transportation”.
A. Izzul W.
4w
In my opinion, transportation is a derived demand since any physical gap arise to get what human need. Transportation, or mobility, is part of the basic needs of human life as we can't afford food, clothes, and settlements just in our sides. Motor vehicle, highways or even aerospace plane are the sample of tertiary needs of the greedy men, even though we can say the greedy of unknown knowledge is part of human itself.
Eric Kraan
4w
Since we are all quoting stuff, I might as well through mine in: "A circle is a thing, the idea of a circle is another" -Spinoza.
Egor Muleev
3w
I did a pic with this one 2 months ago) https://www.linkedin.com/posts/emuleev_mobilitymeme-mumford-activity-7187119326531919873-s4vK?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
That definition contradicts itself as on one hand it talks about bringing and concentrating within a limited area but then talks about giving widest choice!
John M.
4w
….to minimize the work needed for everyone in the community to procure all the resources they need.
President and Founder of CIVITAS Urban Design and Planning Studio, Vancouver Canada.
4wI’ve never read a more accurate description of what the role of Transportation is and should be. If you want to take this a huge step forward ask the question “What if our cities had no roads or freeways”. Would anybody in the transportation or planning world be able to answer that? There actually are answers and would love to hear from transportation engineers and urban designers, not Planners nor Architects They’re both partly to blame for this road centric planning we being found since the 1960s when transortation Engineers ruled the World of Planning. Look at this 1960s Proposal by transportation engineers for the City of Vancouver’s Waterfront.