Human transit

Public transit can ease traffic jams, spur local economies, and help cut carbon emissions, yet many residents who favor transit in principle struggle to back the specific investments that would deliver it. Jarrett Walker, a transit planning consultant who writes the Human Transit blog, traces part of the confusion to experts who speak past one another, leaving the public with the impression that transit is too complicated to understand. His counterargument is that the picture clears up once you grasp the underlying geometry shared by every transit technology.

The book builds from that geometry. It explains the spatial principles behind systems that work, sets out a method for matching a technology to a particular community, and examines the local decisions that make development more welcoming to transit. Along the way it offers practical questions to ask and tools for evaluating proposals.

Written for professionals in the field and for citizens who want a say in their city's transit, it aims to give readers the vocabulary and reasoning to judge transit plans for themselves.