The Early Reviews Are In!
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The latest book from Strong Towns president Chuck Marohn, Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: Transportation for a Strong Town, came out on September 8, not quite two weeks ago. Since then, we’ve been heartened again and again by the early reviews. Here are some in-depth reviews you should check out.
“All Roads Lead to Roads”
Confessions may be a dangerous book. Traffic engineers are cautious and conservative; one would think their received wisdom and accumulated knowledge bears some semblance to reality. But in the middle of a powder-keg cultural moment, where trust in all manner of institutions and experts is at historic lows, Marohn publicly blows up the credibility of this most staid profession. He accuses it of “institutionalized fraud and elaborate self-deception” and of living in a “self-reaffirming echo chamber.” And he does so not as a crank or an interloper, but as an engineer and planner himself.
Perhaps his book will contribute to America’s crisis of public trust. But in this case, a little less public trust could be a good thing—because the designs and plans of the engineering profession, as Marohn demonstrates with somber fury, are killing people all across America every day.
— Addison Del Mastro in The Bulwark
“Taking (Democratic) Control of One’s Own Traffic”
The fundamental focus in this book is traffic, meaning the movement of people and goods along streets and roads, which is literally the lifeblood, the circulatory system, of any urbanized space. (In a book with more than its share of good lines, Marohn’s two-sentence take-down of the over-inflated complaints about traffic congestion we are all guilty of is perhaps my favorite: “People often say that they are ‘stuck in traffic,’ as if their vehicle is somehow not a literal part of the traffic in which they are stuck. They are not stuck in traffic; they are traffic.”—pg. 84.) One doesn’t have to be a student of Gibbons v. Ogden and the Supreme Court’s commerce clause jurisprudence to recognize that this is an inherently political topic, with ramifications for economics, culture, government, and sometimes life and death. Marohn opens the book with the story of a haunting traffic accident, the lessons of which he returns to throughout the chapters that follow, and ends the book with another accident, one that involved himself. He does this not to politicize tragedies or near-tragedies, but rather to show the degree to which human mistakes are enabled by decisions regarding the construction and management of traffic, decisions whose political values should be available to us but usually are not.
This is Marohn’s goal in Confessions of a Recovering Engineer: to reveal the undemocratic—because rarely discussed and almost never subject to actual civic input—values which underlie the traffic regime that American cities are overwhelmingly subject to. Chapter after chapter, Marohn, with the zeal of a penitent convert, digs into the practices and norms of civil engineers like himself, teaching his readers—usually with impressive clarity—about LOS (Level of Service) rankings, MUTCD (Manual for Uniform Traffic Control Devices) warrants, the economic and sociological distinction between “streets” and “roads,” the 85th Percentile Speed rule, and much more. By so doing, Marohn carefully details the disconnect between the people who actually live in urban areas, and those who are tasked with designing the circulatory systems which enable them to move about. That is, he succinctly shows how streets, roads, intersections, traffic signage, bus stops, and more are constructed so as to incentivize—or impel—drivers to act in ways disconnected from—or completely contrary to—what those same people, when truly presented with the full range of traffic options, generally prioritize.
— Russell Arben Fox in Front Porch Republic
“Transportation Reform and City Renewal”
Marohn makes his case persuasively throughout the book. In addition to the topics discussed above, readers will find thought-provoking ideas about public transit, traffic congestion, technology fads, and prospective reform of professional associations. One of Marohn’s great strengths is his refusal to indulge in partisanship. Red meat for the extremes of the ideological spectrum is a proven way to sell books, but Marohn recognizes that transportation reform is or ought to be an issue that cuts across partisan lines at the local level. Conservatives will appreciate his insistence on attention to the bottom line and his appreciation of traditional urban design. Progressives will appreciate his sensitivity to questions of race and class.
— Jason Jewell in The University Bookman
Reader Reviews
We’re grateful for the early readers who have taken time to leave reviews on Amazon, Goodreads, and other sites. (As of this writing, Confessions has 15 reviews on Amazon, all 5-stars.) Here are a few of our favorites from around the web:
“A Great Resource”
While this book is written from the perspective of an engineer, the information presented in the book, about what we've done wrong (see "stroads"), in how we can organize our communities around streets, and what we can do right, is accessible to everyone. This is a great resource for those wondering why their communities aren't currently functioning well and what they can do right now to start making meaningful change in their city, town, and neighborhood.
— Rodney Kazenske on Goodreads (5 stars)
“Fundamental Values for Building Human-Centered Places”
Chuck and the folks at Strong Towns identify the key values missing from too many of those that design and build our cities. Instead of building places you want to spend time at, they build mechanisms for destroying places in the name of moving vehicles at maximum speed. This book is a guide for everyday residents to take the next incremental step in making their town a place that centers human and community flourishing in our transportation system. The conventional approach is bankrupting American cities and literally killing our neighbors. It will take everyday residents like you to build a strong town wherever you live.
— Emma on Amazon (5 stars)
“An Important Alternative View of Cities and Transportation”
Anyone who cares about cities and transportation within and between them should read this book -- perhaps many times. The same person should get his or her neighbors, co-commuters, and elected officials to read it as well, or at least get them to discuss the book's content. On almost every page, the author raises issues or describes alternatives that could make a tremendous difference to both the movement of goods and services and the financing of the infrastructure involved. The author's presentation includes a skillful weaving of relevant data, a few but highly illustrative graphs, and a number of engaging anecdotes. All of this appears with a quality of writing far above that one might reasonably expect from someone with training and experience as a professional engineer.
My only disappointment is that the book could not include more of that material, especially considering that the world can now read engaging anecdotes about real world attempts to apply an approach very similar to the one recommended in the book. The disappointment is relieved, to a great degree, by the supplementary material on the website related to the book.
— Roland Cole, Director of Technology Policy, Sagamore Institute for Policy Research, on Amazon (5 stars)
“This Book Is a Game Changer”
I have dedicated my professional career to making effective and positive changes to how our built environment is generated. One of the largest hurdles to this process has been the built-in conflict that exists between human beings and automobiles, because they are at odds in terms of their needs and the associative impacts.
It seems as though there has always been a set of dirty little secrets associated with the emphasis that the engineering profession has placed upon the focus and attention given to the automobile—to the detriment of the human being. This has always felt wrong to me. The built environment should be generated for people, and yet people seem to be subservient to cars when all is said and done. To fix these problems one must know these problems exist—the dirty little secrets must be brought out into the open for all to see. This book has done that, while also being done by one (Chuck Marohn) who is part of the fraternity which has historically been the keeper and protector of these secrets. Chuck does this not to generate a “GOTCHA” with his fellow engineers, but instead to reframe some very critical thinking and to serve as an agent of change.
To any individual that cares deeply about our built environment and ensuring that it serves human beings as opposed to automobiles, I would implore you to not just read this book—but instead DIGEST it. This book is a GAME CHANGER!
— Mike Hathorne, Planner and Urbanist, on LinkedIn
We’ll keep collecting reviews on the Media page at the Confessions website. That’s also where you can find information on Chuck Marohn’s recent media appearances. Have you bought your copy of the book yet? If not, click the button below. If so, would you mind leaving an honest review of it wherever you purchased your copy? It helps build the momentum for the book and, ultimately, helps change the conversation around building the transportation systems we deserve.