Wednesday, August 10, 2016

According to Dr. Peter Newman we are past "Peak Car"

I attended a talk last night in West Palm Beach at the Drama Works by Professor Peter Newman on his new book, "The End of Automobile Dependence: Global and Local Trends Moving Away from Car-based Planning". It was a refreshingly optimistic talk about car use (trending downward) and growth in central city areas (trending upward).

This is his third book on the subject and available on Amazon. He uses many graphs to show how wealth has been "decoupled" from fossil fuel use around the world. The good news is that, according to Dr. Newman, we won't have to plan around the car much longer. Other modes of transit will be the predominant forms, especially trains and walkable/bikeable neighborhoods. This trend seems to have "legs".

The video below is part of a playlist. Use the "1/3" icon in the top left corner to watch the three videos. Use this link and click "Subscribe" to get noticed when new videos are available. 

This event was hosted by the Center for Urban and Environmental Solutions (CUES) at FAU and sponsored in partnership with the West Palm Beach Downtown Development Authority and the Palm Beach County Planning Congress.