Why We Drive
I received this book as part of the current Humble Bundle that is going on as of this typing.
I agree with the author with some points about why we should drive less like the pollution concerns and the downgrade in community participation. I live in a suburban area where I have to drive out a lot to go shopping and eating out to name a few things. Unfortunately, I don't live nearby where my favorite locally-owned places are at, so I can only visit them infrequently. Most of the stores and food places that are close to where I live are chain places like Mcdonalds or Walmart. Sadly because of where I live, most of my money doesn't go to my local stores, which means the number of unique places to visit will eventually decrease.
The book is a quick read and does a well-done job on explaining the basics to the reader like the history of highways and the formation of the Department of Transportation. When it came to the arguments for depending less on cars, I thought they're too simplistic and presented an extremely black and white view on cars versus bicycles. I wish to stop being dependent on cars, but unfortunately, circumstances prevent me from ceasing. I also appreciate the guide for promoting car-free life and public transportation. However, many people would find it next to impossible to do. As much as I would like to do those activities, it won't work where I live. I live in an extremely conservative suburban area where many of my neighbors refuse supporting things like funding public transportation. I wish the guide shows how to respectfully talk about these issues to someone who is opposed to the ideas mentioned in the book. If I quote the text the way it is from the book, many people in my area will not appreciate the author calling or associating them all sorts of negative terms.
The electronic version I have of the book has a weird layout like some sentences being more massive than the other lines. Also, I had difficulty reading some sentences due to the color of the words being lighter than the other words. I'm not sure if I'm the only one who has this problem, but I found this to be a minor nitpick. While it was annoying at times, it was at least readable unlike the times I tried reading manga on my Sony Reader.
As a beginner guide for automobile and public transportation issues, this is perfect. But veteran activists would not find anything new or ground-breaking in this small booklet.