Autonorama

“Autonorama is a timely reminder from a first-class mind that, like the cartoon dog catching the car, realizing the 60-year-old dream of autonomous driving can only ever be a disappointment. Norton demonstrates that the snake-oil promises of zero crashes, zero emissions, and zero congestion hide the goal of perpetual and damaging car dependency. He also shows that the urban mobility modes too often degraded and therefore despised–public transit, walkability, bicycling– would bloom if only they were funded with a fraction of the financial love lavished for too long on automobility.”–Carlton Reid, Senior Sustainability Contributor, Forbes.com; author of “Roads Were Not Built for Cars” and “Bike Boom ““Provocative, forcing AV proponents to explain why things will be different this time around after the failed promises of the past 80 years, and whether the answer to the urban transportation problem can actually be more, albeit smarter, automobiles.” – “Journal of Urban Affairs”“From my own experience with this text in the classroom, the book was very well-received by undergraduates interested in transportation planning and I am certain the book would make a fine addition to a graduate student’s reading list. The author’s broader message is necessary for transportation planning practitioners and our colleagues within motordom.” – “Journal of Planning Education and Research””[Norton’s] contention that the public is being sold a bill of goods that further reinforces car dependency and freedom against alternative options that are more environmentally and socially friendly creates a thought-provoking analysis of the underlying influences of car company business interests on future choices.”

– “Donovan’s Literary Services”

Peter Norton is an associate professor of history in the Department of Engineering and Society at the University of Virginia. He has authored many articles, book chapters, and the book Fighting Traffic: The Dawn of the Motor Age in the American City.