Table of Contents

1. Public Transport 101  2. The Automobile Age  3. Beyond the Automobile Age  4. The Compact City  5. Planning, Markets and Public Transport  6. Toronto and Melbourne Revisited  7. The Busway Solution  8. The Zurich Model  9. Towards a General Theory of Public Transport Network Planning  10. Planning a Network  11. Every Transit User is also a Pedestrian  12. The Politics of Public Transport

About the Author

Paul Mees is Senior Lecturer in transport planning at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. He is the author of A Very Public Solution: Transport in the Dispersed City (Melbourne University Press, 2000).

Reviews

'The essential primer for all transport planners.' Christian Wolmar, Transport Times '...tells a compelling story of what is wrong with public transit systems around the world and how transit can work well in low-density, auto-oriented places.' Kenneth Joh, The Journal of the American Planning Association 'A book which ought to become as celebrated and influential as Jane Jacobsi? work on cities or the famous San Francisco study by Appleyard ... The essential primer for all transport planners.' Christian Wolmar, Transport Times '[A] fascinating, well-written, well-researched book, easily understood by the layman.' Railwatch 'This is a powerful book that combines detailed practical observation with a rigorous intellectual assessment and shows exactly what is wrong with public transport systems around the world and what is needed to put them right...It is a masterly overview and one that sets all policy makers, planners, politicians, urbanists and transport professionals a clearly defined task. The task is to deliver high quality public transport in a zero tolerance environment for excuses. After this book there can be no excuses.' Professor John Whitelegg, Stockholm Environment Institute, University of York, UK 'Therei? s no need for low-density despair.' Mobility Magazine 'Mees has written a book that is a bus transit buff's dream' D. Brand, Choice, July 2010. 'Now thanks to a book which ought to become as celebrated and influential as Jane Jacobs' work on cities or the famout San Francisco study by Appleyard, I have the anser. And to paraphrase, Tony Blair, its policy, policy, policy and not density.' Christian Wolmar, e-newsletter. 'Should be the essential primer for all transport planners' Christian Wolmar, e-newsletter. 'Deserves to be widely read - particularly by Government ministers and officials with responsibility for transport planning' Manchester Climate Fortnightly, 2010. 'In this thought-provoking book, Paul Mees provides a very personal and frank critique of many aspects of public transport planning, finance, and operations in Australia, New Zealand, the US, and the UK.' John Pucher, Built Environment '...recommended reading.' Philip Laird, Australian Options '..an intriguing offer from Paul Mees... this is an important argument and a bold claim... [it] should be widely read - and the lessons implemented.' Journal of Transport Geography