"Mathew, as a member of the Organizing Committee of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, has a unique perspective on the plight of immigrant taxi drivers. . . . Mathew explores the history of New York's taxicab industry, which has been in a cycle of corruption and reform since the Depression. The book culminates in an essay on globalization, immigration, racism, and the false veneer of multiculturalism in neoliberal society." Booklist"Mathew describes the grim economics of driving the ubiquitous yellow cabs a job where most of the money goes to the cab company owners and where even minor problems, such as a few tickets or a short illness, can spell disaster for drivers." Financial Times"Jump aboard this fast-paced ride through the ins and outs of the taxi industry in New York City and sit up front with the 40,000 cabbies who are overworked, underpaid, and routinely harassed, but have come together to improve their lot. . . . Fasten your seatbelt, grip the dashboard, and enjoy the trip." Morning Star (U.K.)"Drivers' narratives in Taxi can be riveting, inspiring, and upsetting all at the same time. . . . Their tales penetrate deep into the exploitive nature of the taxi industry. . . . In describing precisely how a group of seemingly powerless immigrant workers flexed their muscles, Taxi critiques the labor movement and the broader movement for social justice." Left TurnDriving a cab has long attracted recent immigrants and others at the margins of the economy. In recent years, however, the working conditions and the nature of cab ownership have changed. As Biju Mathew reveals in this lively account of the benefits and hardships in the lives of today's taxi drivers, just about everything has changed dramatically except the yellow paint. At once a passionate declaration of worker solidarity and an ethnography of work, Taxi is a compelling narrative of the lives of immigrant taxi drivers in New York City. This updated edition covers the formation of the International Taxi Workers Alliance, the unusual collaboration with the Central Labor Council, and 2007 taxi strikes protesting New York City's plan requiring taxicabs to install costly global positioning systems and credit-card machines."

In many parts of the world, there is a crisis of mobility. The choices we have made over the past 200 years on modes and technologies of transport have brought us unprecedented global interaction and in many respects increased personal freedom. However, all this mobility has come at a cost to society, to the economy and to the environment. Mobility is in crisis, but few seem aware of the full extent of it. Though most people will be aware of congestion, accidents (although this aspect is often overlooked), parking restrictions or fuel prices, few will have considered the effects of the dramatic increase in mobility expected in China, India and elsewhere. Nor do many people in their daily lives consider the impact of climate change on our environment and the contribution our cars make to it. It is often thought that technology alone can solve this problem. For some observers, salvation could be achieved by means of hydrogen fuel cells, by hybrid cars, or by increased fuel efficiency, or even by telematics to reduce congestion. This book shows that "technology" may well not be enough in itself and that for a genuinely sustainable transport future far more radical change - affecting many aspects of society - is needed. It is likely, for example, that new business models are needed, as well as users and consumers adopting new forms of behaviour. Disruptive technological innovation may well contribute, but needs to be induced by a combination of market forces and government regulation. Many studies touch on transport and mobility issues and more mainstream books aimed at challenging the dominance of automobility are common, yet works dealing with the longer-term strategic, theoretical and broader conceptual issues needed to inform the move towards more sustainable transport are rare. Yet policy-makers, practitioners, as well as many sections of academia, acknowledge a need for guidance on new thinking on sustainable mobility. This book brings together a range of views representing both leading-edge thinking and best practice in the mobility sector. The individual expert contributions form the basis for framing a broader vision of future mobility and proposed transition trajectories towards that future. Much of the effort reflected in the chapters in this book is concerned with going beyond the "technofix" of new cars, to confront the more difficult challenges of institutional, cultural and social change within and beyond the industry that have to be resolved in the transition towards sustainability. It therefore seeks to break through the conventional boundary between engineering and the social sciences, and the contributors come from both sides of this traditional but unnecessary divide, combining economists, engineers, geographers, designers and others. The work is based on the sustainable mobility stream in the 2003 International Greening of Industry Network conference in San Francisco. This event brought together experts from industry and government, and the book combines some of the papers presented there, developed and updated into full chapters, with a number of additional chapters to capture some of the themes that emerged from the conference. The central problem addressed in this book is the private car: how to power it, how to build it and how to deliver it to customers in a more sustainable future. It starts with ideas of radical innovation in the propulsion system of the car, notably the hydrogen fuel cell. In one section, the book examines business models that could be used to deliver automobility in a more sustainable manner. This section looks at how the car is made and used, and looks beyond it by examining how we could change those aspects in our quest for sustainable mobility. The book then considers a number of recently introduced vehicles and alternative vehicle concepts within the context of a dominant existing paradigm. These vary from a minimalist single-seat commuter to a powertrain exchange concept that could breathe new life into the electric vehicle. A number of chapters then report on current practice and experience in the initial moves toward more sustainable automobility. Finally, more visionary views are presented to look at what conclusions we can draw from the strands discussed and suggest possible future scenarios: where do we go from here? When thinking about the car, it is often not appreciated to what extent our modern culture is integrated with the car and its systems: we have literally built our world around the car in its current form, and this inevitably shapes the scope for constructing sustainable mobility. We therefore need to tackle any change to the current automobility paradigm on a very broad front and we need to be prepared for the possibly dramatic social and economic changes we may bring about by changing just some elements. The Business of Sustainable Mobility will be essential reading for academics, practitioners, policy-makers and others interested in the latest thinking on sustainable mobility.

No other American car carries the mystique of the Corvette, and early in 1997, General Motors unveiled the stunning fifth-generation Corvette to universal acclaim. But GM's triumph was hard-won -- the legendary sports car had nearly fallen victim to internal company politics and a squeeze on profits. In this candid and compelling book, journalist James Schefter reveals the inside story of the people who saved and reinvented the Corvette, from the drawing board to the assembly line.

For eight years, Schefter enjoyed unprecedented access to every part of GM, including areas off-limits to many company vice presidents. A true insider, he observed the new Corvette's odyssey from sketch to clay model to prototype to production vehicle. He accompanied test drivers across scorching deserts and snow-packed mountains. And he came to know the fiercely dedicated team of designers, engineers, and executives who fought and achieved their dream: a new Corvette that is better conceived, better built, and less expensive than its predecessors. The Corvette's odyssey to reclaim its glory is a thrilling testament to the endurance of American spirit.

An examination of how the automobile has ravaged America's cities and landscape since the end of the 19th century together with a strategy for reversing their automobile dependency. The text provides a history of the rapid spread of the automobile and documents the huge subsidies commanded by the highway lobby, to the detriment of once-efficient forms of mass transportation. Demonstrating that there are economic, political, architectural and personal solutions to the problem, it shows that radical change is entirely possible.;The book should be of value to everyone interested in the history of America's relationship with the car, and in the prospect of returning to a world of human mobility.

'This book provides a very good history of the Los Angeles experience. Urban sociologist, among others, will find it an important addition to their shelf on urban social change.' --James R. Hudson, Contemporary Sociology

Canada and the United States exchange the world's highest level of bilateral trade, valued at $1.4 billion a day. Two-thirds of this trade travels on trucks. Heavy Traffic examines the way in which the regulatory reform of American and Canadian trucking, coupled with free trade, has internationalized this vital industry. Before deregulation, restrictive entry rules had fostered two separate national highway transportation markets, and most international traffic had to be exchanged at the border. When the United States deregulated first, the imbalance between its opened market and Canada's still-restricted one produced a surprisingly difficult bilateral dispute. American deregulation was motivated by domestic incentives, but the subsequent Canadian deregulation blended domestic incentives with transborder rate comparisons and concerns about trade competitiveness. Daniel Madar shows that deregulation created a de facto regime of free trade in trucking services. Removing regulatory barriers has enabled Canadian and American carriers to follow the expansion of transborder traffic that began with the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement and continues with NAFTA. The services available with deregulated trucking have also supported sweeping changes in industrial logistics. As transborder traffic has surged, the two countries' carriers - from billion-dollar corporations to family firms - have exploited the latitude provided by deregulation. This book is a valuable contribution to our understanding of the policy processes and economic conditions that led to trucking deregulation. As a study in public policy formation and the international effects of reform, it will be of interest to students and scholars of political economy, international relations, and transportation.

An effective transport infrastructure and its associated services are widely regarded as key components of an efficient, equitable, and sustainable society. But the link between transport provision (especially car ownership) and growing global levels of, for example, social exclusion, congestion, pollution, and road deaths is also increasingly recognized. The need to understand how to satisfy a seemingly insatiable appetite for mobility while minimizing its harmful impacts grows ever more crucial.

The subdiscipline of transport economics has made a substantial contribution towards a more sophisticated understanding of such dilemmas, and how detailed strategy and policy might be better developed and implemented. Indeed, especially in the last thirty years or so, there has been a veritable explosion in research output, and this new four-volume collection from Routledge s Critical Concepts in Economics series meets the need for an authoritative reference work to help make sense of a rapidly expanding and ever more complex corpus of scholarly and practical literature.

Volume I includes an overview of the subdiscipline, and then focuses on choice and demand; and transport networks. Volume II, meanwhile, is organized around the themes of willingness to pay and the valuation of: travel time; reliability and trip-time variability; crowding; life and injury; noise; and emissions. Volume III emphasizes institutional reform, costs, and performance. The final volume in the collection includes the best and most influential work on: infrastructure; pricing, subsidy, and funding; congestion charging; subsidies; case studies in passenger transport economics, and analyses of freight and logistics economics.

With a full index, together with a comprehensive introduction, newly written by the editor, which places the collected material in its historical and intellectual context, Transport Economics is an essential work of reference. The collection will be particularly useful as an essential database allowing scattered and often fugitive material to be easily located. It will also be welcomed as a crucial tool permitting rapid access to less familiar and sometimes overlooked texts. For researchers, students, practitioners, and policy-makers, it is as a vital one-stop research and pedagogic resource.

A call to redefine mobility so that it is connected, heterogeneous, intelligent, and personalized, as well as sustainable, adaptable, and city-friendly. The twentieth century was the century of the automobile; the twenty-first will see mobility dramatically re-envisioned. Automobiles altered cityscapes, boosted economies, and made personal mobility efficient and convenient for many. We had a century-long love affair with the car. But today, people are more attached to their smartphones than their cars. Cars are not always the quickest mode of travel in cities; and emissions from the rapidly growing number of cars threaten the planet. This book, by three experts from industry and academia, envisions a new world of mobility that is connected, heterogeneous, intelligent, and personalized (the CHIP architecture). The authors describe the changes that are coming. City administrators are shifting from designing cities for cars to designing cities for people. Nations and cities will increasingly employ targeted user fees and offer subsidies to nudge consumers toward more sustainable modes. The sharing economy is coaxing many consumers to shift from being owners of assets to being users of services. The auto industry is responding with connected cars that double as virtual travel assistants and by introducing autonomous driving. The CHIP architecture embodies an integrated, multimode mobility system that builds on ubiquitous connectivity, electrified and autonomous vehicles, and a marketplace open to innovation and entrepreneurship. Consumers will exercise choice on the basis of user experience and efficiency, aided by "intelligent advisors," accessible through their mobile devices. An innovative mobility architecture reconfigured for this century is a social and economic necessity; this book charts a course for achieving it.

Tales of being a London cabbie

The student workbook is designed to help you retain key chapter content. Included within this resource are chapter objective questions; key-term definition queries; and multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and true-or-false problems.